Reports are that Christian McCaffrey is likely to play on Sunday vs. the Chiefs, just three days after he will have been acquired by the 49ers in a blockbuster trade.
But are those reports accurate? 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan wouldn’t say for sure on Friday with Murph & Mac, but kept the possibility open that the star running back could make his debut.
“I’m still up in the air on whether we’re going to be able to get him here for Sunday or not,” Shanahan said on KNBR. “I know for sure he’ll be here the following Sunday, but I’m just at kind of a wait and see approach.”
“This happens so fast, we just gotta see where he’s at. It’s not a physical issue. He’s been practicing all week out there, so you know he’s ready in that way, but he’s not going to get a practice in with us. He’s never even seen our playbook, doesn’t know the words or anything. Christian is a pretty naturally good football player. I think he picks things up fast, so we’ll just see how it goes here in the next 48 hours.”
If he does play, reports are that he would only do so sparingly, likely in a red zone package. The good news is that McCaffrey seems to be back to full health after a handful of injury plagued years, meaning his ramp up will be exclusively about getting acquainted with the playbook.
“I know when you look at a player like Christian, medically, coming out of college, we had the highest medical grade on him of any player we ever got since we’ve been here,” Shanahan said. “He never had injuries. He was the cleanest guy that we could have. And it started that way for two years in the NFL—the first three years, I believe.
“I know these last two years haven’t been the same, but watching him this year, he’s back to his full health, looks like the same guy as coming out of college, and I know we’ve got a tough guy, who handles it right, who takes care of his body as good as anyone can. I’d put him on that Bosa-type level. It’s just been kind of the way he was raised. The way he’s looked at everything. It’s 100 percent commitment to being the best he can be at what he does, and he’s been doing that since he was probably three years old.”
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