wattWhen the San Francisco 49ers traded for Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey midway through the 2022 season, they did something counterintuitive. Conventional wisdom has been against running backs for a decade or more, as team after team in the NFL realizes they can find effective backs without having to use premium draft picks or flashy free-agent contracts to acquire them them. The league already knows that running backs are a relatively replaceable group.
But McCaffrey was a different beast, so the 49ers gave up a small ransom to get him: four draft picks over two years: a second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round pick. McCaffrey performed well down the stretch in 2022, but then the Niners threw their chips even further ahead of the season: They restructured McCaffrey’s already massive contract to create about $9 million under this year’s salary cap. Thousands of dollars in space. The bill is due later and is huge, but the 49ers know they have a valuable window to do their best in the Super Bowl. They have a serviceable quarterback in Brock Purdy who is on a cheap rookie deal. They have Hall of Fame left tackle Trent Williams who is still playing well at 35 years old. They had two of the best defensive players in the NFL in Nick Bosa and Fred Warner in their prime.
By delivering elite play at the right time on the 49ers’ organizational calendar, McCaffrey arguably made the small difference in propelling the 49ers from a regularly elite team to a Super Bowl contender on Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs . Kansas City’s offense is centered around Patrick Mahomes and star tight end Travis Kelce, who remain formidable after years together, while the 49ers’ offense relies on a multi-faceted The offense scores points and has no weaknesses against the run or pass.
Of course, it was McCaffrey who was in charge of the offense. Everything the 49ers do has him running through his heart in some way. The value of running backs may be declining, but McCaffrey is an example of what can happen when a team has a truly special running back who can contribute to the offense in a variety of ways.
McCaffrey leads the way in rushing, with 1,459 yards, nearly 300 yards ahead of second-place finisher Derrick Henry. But that’s only part of the story. He was very efficient, averaging 5.4 yards on 272 carries. Counting his 67 catches, he led the league with 339 touches, averaging 6 yards per touch. Only one running back averaged more points per game; that was a backup (D’Von Akan of the Miami Dolphins) who had roughly one-third of McCaffrey’s workload. No player in the NFL gets the ball more often than McCaffrey, and no player even gets the ball nearly as often as McCaffrey while posting efficiency statistics like his. The seven-year pro, who was a college star at Stanford before starting his career at Carolina, is in a class of his own.
Being a 49er certainly helps.McCaffrey averaged 3.2 yards per carry forward A defender takes physical contact while his offensive line – led by the timeless Williams – pushes would-be tacklers away.This number ranks among the best among regular season running backs and surpasses all Average Yards per rush for some NFL backs. That doesn’t mean McCaffrey got a free ride.His 2.2 yards back Contact ranks sixth in the NFL as defenders find reaching for McCaffrey no more enjoyable than not touching him at all. McCaffrey is notoriously elusive, but his strength this year isn’t even about making defenders miss. (His 15 sacks tied for 17th in the NFL.) In contrast, tackling McCaffrey was a brutal affair that required a lot of strength and space. Finding him is just part of the battle.
McCaffrey’s solidity is matched by his explosiveness. He has not given up a ball on 83 receiving targets this season. He fumbled the ball three times, which is a big number for him, but overall, he showed amazing touch. The 49ers have attempted to give him the ball more than 350 times this season. McCaffrey let the ball fall to the ground in three of those games, a rate of just 0.8%.
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The 27-year-old has every reason to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day, and the Super Bowl would be an excellent resume item for a player who’s already been named to the All-Pro team twice. McCaffrey should also do well in the NFL postseason awards being announced this weekend, as he has already earned the Football Writers Association of America’s Offensive Player of the Year honors this season. If a non-quarterback is seriously considered for league MVP honors, McCaffrey will also be a candidate for the award.
Winning the Super Bowl would also tie McCaffrey with one-third of his father, Ed, who spent most of his 13-year career with the Denver Broncos. , winning three of those Super Bowl titles. Ed received one of his rings with the 49ers in 1994, but he didn’t touch the ball in the Niners’ Super Bowl win. In order for the team to get another one now, Christian may need to touch the ball a few more times. Maybe around 30?
