Collinsworth believes CMC has a little Travis Kelce in him

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Cris Collinsworth joins Matt Maiocco to discuss how Jimmy Garoppolo fits perfectly with the 49ers and why he believes San Francisco can win the Super Bowl with Jimmy G.

With a full week to study the 49ers' playbook and practice with his new teammates, Christian McCaffrey gave everyone a glimpse of what he's capable of in San Francisco's Week 8 win over the Los Angeles Rams.

After accounting for three total touchdowns, including a 34-yard passing touchdown, McCaffrey has had two more full weeks to integrate himself more into the 49ers' offense thanks to a Week 9 bye week.

And as McCaffrey gets more comfortable in Kyle Shanahan's scheme, NBC Sports NFL analyst Cris Collinsworth believes anything is possible for the 26-year-old running back with the 49ers.

"I don't think there is a limitation to it. I really don't," Collinsworth told NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco ahead of the "Sunday Night Football" clash between the 49ers and Los Angeles Chargers. "Now, the other part of it is, you have to remember there's three interior guys were sort of new, right? And this running game takes a while to get used to. And then there's play-action part off of it. But I think McCaffrey just adds a dimension and we already saw it in the first [full] game. He threw one, caught one, ran one, all that."

McCaffrey's ability to pick up the playbook so quickly and have immediate success impressed Collinsworth, leading to an interesting comparison.

"To me, he has a little Travis Kelce in him," Collinsworth told Maiocco. "[McCaffrey] understands football. He's been around it his whole life and he understands sometimes, you don't have to outrun somebody, you don't have to out-juke them. There's a spot right here. Just turn around and throw me the ball, right?"

The 49ers swung for the fence on Oct. 20, trading four future draft picks to the Carolina Panthers for McCaffrey, believing he would unlock a new dimension of the offense. Shanahan puts running backs in a position to succeed, and a player of McCaffrey's caliber should be able to gash opposing defenses with the blocking this scheme creates.

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"This offense fits perfectly with that intelligence of a player that has grown up around the game," Collinsworth said to Maiocco. "And [he] just understands that, yeah, you're a great athlete, you're going to accomplish a lot of great things with just physical skills, but to be a champion, that understanding has to go much deeper. And to see what he's done here already bodes well for the future."

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The 49ers feel so good about what McCaffrey already has accomplished that they were comfortable trading Jeff Wilson Jr. to the Miami Dolphins before the Nov. 1 trade deadline. The return of Elijah Mitchell from a foot injury also helps.

While the 49ers have had good running backs during Shanahan's tenure, they've never had one on McCaffrey's level, and in Collinsworth's mind, the sky is the limit for San Francisco's offense moving forward.

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