Are the 49ers Peaking too Early?

The 49ers are playing their best football right now.

They're healthy, undefeated and leading the league in point differential. They're putting the NFL on notice, and showing everyone how they dominate week after week,

That's the good news.

Here's the not so good news. To make this statement and achieve such a hot start, the 49ers used their best offensive weapon, Christian McCaffrey, like it was the postseason. Gave him a league-leading 119 touches, which equals 23.8 per game.

McCaffrey is a great player, and when the 49ers are in the playoffs, they should give him as many touches as it takes to win. They should empty his tank.

But not in September and October. The 49ers didn't need to give McCaffrey 119 touches to win those five games. They could have given him 99 touches and still won.

If the 49ers continue to feed McCaffrey nearly 25 times per game, the odds that he'll get injured are high. If he goes down, the 49ers' offensive efficiency could take a big dip as well.

The 49ers' No. 1 priority should be pacing McCaffrey and getting him to the playoffs healthy. Instead, their priority seems to be using him as much as possible every week so they can blow teams out.

McCaffrey's current workload doesn't seem sustainable. If the 49ers overuse him and he gets injured, they absolutely will have peaked too early. They need to be prudent and cautious and find other ways to win. Like this week. There's a real chance they'll face a backup quarterback if Deshaun Watson can't play.

The 49ers don't have to run McCaffrey into the ground to beat a backup quarterback.

Just be smart.