Christian McCaffrey made his 2024 debut Sunday, and the 49ers running back was full go. He was not on a pitch count, playing 54 of 61 snaps in his return from bilateral Achilles tendinitis.
McCaffrey finished with 13 carries for 39 yards and six catches for 68 yards in the 23-20 win over the Buccaneers.
“I’m just happy I’m here, man. That was a long journey and a lot of long days,” McCaffrey told reporters postgame, via Kirk Larrabee of 49erswebzone.com. “So, it feels good to win and feels good to just play in a football game again.”
McCaffrey left an Aug. 6 training camp practice, and after three long months of rest, rehabilitation and even treatment in German, he returned to practice this week. He admitted having some rust while playing a game for the first time since the Super Bowl in February.
“That’s the third time I’ve had pads on in eight weeks,” McCaffrey said. “So just getting back into a groove, that was really good for me to do. I think there’s a couple things that maybe I didn’t feel like myself 100 percent, but that’s normal when you haven’t played in a long time. I’ll learn and grow from those and just keep trucking along.”
The 49ers did try to give McCaffrey some rest in the first half, with Jordan Mason and Isaac Guerendo combining for a handful of snaps.
“He came out great, which was huge,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We knew it was going to be hard to load manage him, as I think everyone says in the media -- I just say ‘not play him as much’ -- but I thought we did that in the first half. We did it a couple series and stuff. In the second half, it got away from us a little bit. I think we only had one drive in that whole third quarter, didn’t have as many possessions. We weren’t taking him out in the fourth, and he didn’t need to be taken out. Just talking to him, he felt great, and we’re going to be pumped to have him back next week.”
McCaffrey expected to be “a lot more sore” than he was immediately after the game but said Monday will be more telling.
“When you miss time due to something like that, you know, nobody wants to be on the field more than me,” McCaffrey said. “Just to be out there again, to be honest with you, you really realize how much of a privilege it is to play football.”
