SANTA CLARA — Kyle Shanahan is impressed with just about everything Christian McCaffrey does on the football field.
Except for one thing.
On Thursday, the 49ers coach was asked about McCaffrey's appearance on the "Manningcast" broadcast of the "Monday Night Football" matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Philadelphia Eagles and his star running back discussing his hilarious viral flop attempt in San Francisco's Week 13 win over the Eagles.
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“I saw that,” Shanahan said with a laugh. “And I thought, 'that’s the only thing he didn’t do very well this year.' It wasn’t the best flop. It can’t be so obvious.”
McCaffrey is having an MVP-caliber season with an NFL-leading 244 carries for 1,292 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground. The All-Pro also has caught 57 of his 68 targets for 509 receiving yards and an additional seven scores through the air.
Brock Purdy didn’t see the flop happen until it went viral on social media but agreed with his head coach’s assessment.
San Francisco 49ers
“That’s 100 percent accurate,” Purdy told NBC Sports Bay Area. “He does everything right, but he can’t flop. It was funny though. I was like, ‘What the heck, that’s not very Christian-like.’ He doesn’t do that kind of stuff, but it was funny.”
Shanahan isn’t opposed to the occasional flop because it could be beneficial to the team but the head coach doesn’t want to see it turn into a regular occurrence.
“You want guys to do that. You’re not allowed to touch guys after the play," Shanahan explained. "Sometimes guys can’t see it because it happens so fast, but they can see the reaction, but you don’t want to turn it into the NBA too fast
Center Jake Brendel, like his head coach, saw the flop in real time and agreed that flopping is not in the running back’s wheelhouse.
“Of course not,” Brendel said. “You can’t build a persona of being a tough guy, stiff-arming people and do that. But that’s a good thing.”
If flopping skills were a part of the MVP requirements, McCaffrey would have some work to do.