The 49ers went all in on Christian McCaffrey last October, and the move is paying off.
San Francisco already possessed a slithery offensive weapon with Deebo Samuel, an elite route-runner in Brandon Aiyuk and a physically dominating George Kittle leading the way.
But adding McCaffrey, the NFL's best jack-of-all-trades running back when healthy, to Kyle Shanahan's magisterial offensive system seemed like the perfect piece to maximize the 49ers' potential -- and worth giving up 2023 second-, third- and fourth-round draft picks, plus a 2024 fifth-round draft pick.
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NBC Sports' NFL Insider Peter King came to this conclusion in his latest Football Morning in America column Monday.
"Big question around the time of the big trade from Carolina last October: Would McCaffrey—who missed 23 games due to injury in 2021 and ’22—hold up and be worth second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks?" King wrote. "Watch the 30-7 win at Pittsburgh in the season-opener, with McCaffrey’s power and speed and in-line toughness, and tell me he wasn’t worth a five in 2024 and overall picks 61, 93 and 132 this year.
"With 169 rushing-receiving yards, a healthy McCaffrey was at peak effectiveness. And, by the way, he’s played in 21 of 21 games in the past 12 months."
McCaffrey is the NFL's leading rusher [152 yards] on 22 carries going into Monday Night Football, highlighted by his 65-yard touchdown to the house.
San Francisco 49ers
The injury bug really has been the only negative storyline throughout McCaffrey's career, but that hasen't been in the discussion since he missed the remainder of the 2021 season with the Carolina Panthers due to an ankle injury.
McCaffrey played all but 10 offensive snaps for the 49ers in Week 1, receiving 85 percent of the snaps, Elijah Mitchell taking the other 15 percent.
McCaffrey didn't play more than 74 percent of snaps in a game that Mitchell played last season.
If Sunday was any indication of what the rest of the season will be like, McCaffrey is on his way to being the 49ers' bell-cow running back, and might be used in more ways than one can imagine.
McCaffrey and Co. look to extend their regular-season win streak to 12 against the 1-0 Los Angeles Rams on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.