SANTA CLARA — There’s a running back renaissance taking place in the NFL and Christian McCaffrey has yet to take part in it.
Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley is picking up steam as a Most Valuable Player candidate with 1,392 yards and 12 touchdowns. Derrick Henry of Baltimore, who while at Alabama beat out Stanford’s McCaffrey for the Heisman Trophy in 2015, isn’t far behind with 1,325 yards and 13 touchdowns.
At their current pace, Barkley and Henry would both break 2,000 yards rushing. There have been eight previous 2,000-yard rushers in NFL history, and never two in the same season.
And that doesn’t even include Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs, whose 944 yards rank third in the NFL and who the 49ers’ Nick Bosa believes is the best back in the NFL.
McCaffrey, felled by bilateral Achilles tendinitis for the first eight games of the season, has gone right back into the lineup with his usual workload a year after rushing for 1,459 yards, catching 56 passes for 564 more.
But it’s been a slog the likes of which McCaffrey is unfamiliar. He has 149 yards on 43 carries, a 3.5-yard average that is down from 5.4 in 2023 when he was the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year. Most telling, the 49ers’ most frequent visitor to the end zone since Jerry Rice — McCaffrey had 39 touchdowns in 33 regular and postseason games going into the season — has has played three games and hasn’t scored a touchdown.
McCaffrey’s last touchdown was last Feb. 11 and a 21-yard touchdown reception from Jauan Jennings in a 25-22 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas. McCaffrey finished with 80 yards rushing and 80 yards receiving.
The 49ers (5-6) visit the Buffalo Bills (9-2) Sunday night. Getting McCaffrey on track would go a long way toward fueling an upset a week after a demoralizing 38-10 road loss to the Packers, with McCaffrey carrying 11 times for 31 yards and losing a fumble.
The 49ers, seventh in the NFL in rushing at 138.4 yards per game, are averaging 83.3 yards rushing in the three games since McCaffrey’s return. Jordan Mason, who was among the NFL rushing leaders early in the season, has just six attempts since McCaffrey came back. Rookie Isaac Guerendo has one.
“I feel like I’m getting a lot better,” McCaffrey said Wednesday. “My mindset is always the same whether I have success or failure. I think when you lose maybe you don’t jump out on the stat sheet and your failures get highlighted. But there’s stuff that happens when you have huge games that I’m upset at. That mindset has been the same my whole career and nothing is going to change there.”
Coach Kyle Shanahan has no interest in sitting McCaffrey just to balance the rushing ledger with Mason and Guerendo.
“We’re not trying to get Christian off the field more,” Shanahan said. “We want to keep him fresh and keep him at his best, but Christian’s also a guy who gets better …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
