Christian McCaffrey is continuing to work his way back to the field, as bilateral Achilles tendinitis has sidelined him for the 49ers’ first eight games.
San Francisco is on its bye this week, but General Manager John Lynch noted in a Wednesday morning interview with KNBR that McCaffrey remains on track to have his practice window opened next week to potentially play against the Buccaneers.
“The ideal scenario versus Tampa Bay is that he continues to — we keep using this terminology — but ramp up, which just means increase the volume of work that he’s doing,” Lynch said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “He’s been doing that, and he hasn’t had any setbacks. The hope is we take it up another notch this week. Provided that goes well, we’re kind of opening that window, allowing him to go back to practice. IR players can work to the side. They can’t get involved in practice. And so, Christian has been kind of on that plan.
“And now, hopefully, you increase the volume this week. You hope you have no setbacks. I’d expect it to kind of go that way. I pray that it goes that way because he’s done really well. He hasn’t had any of those [setbacks]. And if so, then Monday, we hope to have him practicing with our team, and that’d be a really good deal for us. We all know he’s the reigning offensive player of the year. He’s a special game-changing player for us.”
McCaffrey rushed for 1,459 yards with 14 touchdowns and caught 67 passes for 564 yards with seven TDs last season.
With Jordan Mason and Isaac Guerendo making an impact at running back in 2024, the 49ers do have options to limit McCaffrey’s workload when he comes back.
“With a guy like Christian, I think, regardless whether we had guys that could spell him or not, you do what’s right for the player,” Lynch said. “That’s what we’ll always do. There’s been a really good plan in place this whole time. We’re not there yet. We’ve got to get there. But those things will start to be — OK, here’s what he’s done in practice, here’s how much volume, provided he’s ready to play, that we feel like he can play.
“And then ... we do have the depth where we feel like we can do that. I think if you have Christian out there for five plays, you’re a better team. There’s a reason we put all that draft capital into trading for him, and I think it’s been a good deal for us. I think everybody would say that. So we just want him back on the field, and we’ll figure it out from there.”
