What Makes Christian McCaffrey So Special

SANTA CLARA -- Christian McCaffrey isn't the biggest or the fastest running back in the NFL, but he has emerged as the best running back and the first legitimate MVP candidate at the position in more than a decade.

What sets McCaffrey apart?

To find out, I asked 49ers run game coordinator Chris Foerster. Here's what he said.

FOERSTER: "He's obviously fast. He's big enough. He's strong enough. But his attention to detail in every little thing that he does is Manning-like. I've never seen anything like it. That's what I see with Christian. That's what sets him apart. And then the other thing is there's an incredible competitive drive and toughness, like that first guy's not getting him down. And there were some things said this week about some other running backs and how hard they ran against this Ravens defense. I can promise you, if you think that's hard, Christian's thinking, 'I'll show you what hard is.' There's still that I'm-going-to-show-you mentality with this guy, so not only does he have great attention to detail, he freaking works his tail off and every single minute of every single day he's fired up.

"I'll give you one more story about Christian. So yesterday, we're going to start practice, we're doing team takeoff, where we do two simple little plays where we're kind of running screens on air, and we have about 40 seconds before the period starts and I go to Christian and I said, 'Man, we're gonna get after these guys, we're going to play fast, we're going to play physical.' I mean, I don't know, shoot, the Ravens are a great defense. We'll do the best we can, but I was being positive, pumping them up, and literally it was like we were in the locker room getting ready to go play the game. He was so fired up. He's like, 'I agree coach,' and you could see his eyes get big and he started to twitch a little bit, and he's like, 'I think we're gonna get these guys, I really think we can get these guys.' I'm like, 'Dude I was just kind of giving you a little banter before we start the period,' and he's ready to go run out the tunnel and play the game, so it's not it's not fake. It's legit. It's just who he is. It oozes out of him, his preparation, all the things he does. I could talk forever about Christian McCaffrey because he's one he's like I said he's almost one of a kind."