San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey said he feels “great” and plans to play in Sunday’s season opener against the Seattle Seahawks after tweaking his calf Thursday.
McCaffrey warmed up before Friday’s practice as 49ers fans and a nation of fantasy football players seemingly watched their phones for updates. It turned out that McCaffrey did not practice with the team but instead ran, hopped and caught passes on the side with trainers; coach Kyle Shanahan then said the running back was questionable for Sunday’s season opener.
McCaffrey, though, later met with reporters and said otherwise.
“I feel great about where I’m at,” he said. “Unfortunately, when you have an injury history like I have, sometimes when you don’t practice, things get, uh, blown out of proportion. But like I said, I feel great.”
McCaffrey said Thursday’s injury was “nothing serious” and does not compare to last season.
“Yeah, I’ve forgotten about last year, forgotten about the year before that, the year before that,” McCaffrey said. “You know, I’m focused on this week and playing Seattle on Sunday.”
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A year ago, McCaffrey also said he planned to play in the season opener, a “Monday Night Football” game against the New York Jets, but was ultimately held out of that one as well as the 49ers’ next seven games.
At the time, Shanahan said McCaffrey reported feeling discomfort in his calf and Achilles area before the game.
“Just talking to him about it, (the pain) was still there,” Shanahan said after the win over the Jets. “Thought it was going to be smart to keep him out, and glad we did.”
McCaffrey struck a similar note Friday, saying he took himself out of Thursday’s practice as a precaution and that he “always plans to play” on Sundays.
Still, there are some differences between 2024 and now.
A year ago, McCaffrey was bothered by flare-ups of Achilles tendonitis in both legs throughout the summer, and he practiced sporadically as a result. This year, he was on hand throughout the spring and summer — with an occasional “veterans rest day” — and hadn’t been held out with an injury until Thursday. He was asked if he removed himself from the session out of an abundance of caution.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m not supposed to go into anything that happened, but I felt like it was the smart thing to do to not finish the practice. Because I’ve been there before, and I’ve been my own worst enemy in situations like that. I’m proud of myself for not doing that again. Like I said, I went through a whole training camp (and) feel great about where I’m at.”
If McCaffrey can’t play Sunday, Brian Robinson Jr., whom the 49ers acquired in an Aug. 22 trade with the Washington Commanders, would likely start. Robinson could also share the workload with McCaffrey if the 49ers are worried about overtaxing McCaffrey on an artificial surface field in Seattle and in Week 2 in New Orleans.
“There’s a lot of plays in there,” Robinson said about learning Shanahan’s playbook. “So obviously, I don’t expect to have the playbook in full in one week. But I’m constantly making that progress every day just to get there.”
Said Shanahan when asked about Robinson’s readiness: “I mean, he is trying to learn it all. He is working his tail off doing it, studying, but he has been through three practices. So, it’s definitely not there yet. It’ll get better throughout the year. But he’s had a real good week.”
(Photo: David Gonzales / Imagn Images)