Through his first seven seasons in the NFL, McCaffrey has seen and done just about everything a player can experience, including coming back from major injuries. However, in the moments leading up to his team’s eventual 23-20 victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, McCaffrey found himself stopping, breathing and feeling every step of the way back from bilateral Achilles tendonitis.
“I try to feel the emotions as they come up,” McCaffrey said. “I try to stay balanced, and obviously there’s a lot of excitement when you play an NFL football game… Nobody wants to be on the field more than me. Just being there again, to be honest with you, you really realize the privilege that it is to play football.
After an eight-game, nine-week delay, McCaffrey made his 2024 debut against the Buccaneers, and despite an initial plan to make McCaffrey’s return a little easier, his role looked eerily similar to the one he had in 2023 when he won the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award.
McCaffrey was on the field for 57 snaps, a whopping 88% of the team’s offensive snaps and six more than he averaged last season. McCaffrey had 107 yards from scrimmage on 19 touches, down slightly from the 126.4 and 21 he averaged last season.
Perhaps McCaffrey’s immediate important role shouldn’t be a surprise given his importance to the offense in past seasons and, more pressingly, his hopes for a second-half surge.
“It came out great, which was huge,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We knew it was going to be difficult to manage the load.”
At first glance, McCaffrey’s return was not the panacea the Niners would have hoped for. It didn’t lead to a touchdown-rich offensive outburst. San Francisco struggled once again in the red zone, scoring a touchdown on only one of its three trips inside the Tampa 20-yard line.
Still, McCaffrey offered some of his usual highlights, including his basket catch off quarterback Brock Purdy for a 30-yard gain with the 49ers trailing by four in the fourth quarter.
It was the longest reception of the season by a 49ers running back. McCaffrey’s six receptions for 68 yards nearly surpassed backup Jordan Mason’s 10 receptions for 86 yards in the first eight games combined.
“Defenses have to plan for that,” Purdy said. “They have to recognize it, which can open the door for other guys.”
In fact, simply having McCaffrey back on the field helped the 49ers offense begin to return to its roots. Like other teams that have played the 49ers this season, the Bucs played with more coverage than usual, dropping from their preferred zone coverage rate of 75.7% on average to 60% against San Francisco.
On multiple occasions, McCaffrey found himself in single coverage against a linebacker (he beat the Bucs’ Lavonte David at the 30-yard line) or with multiple eyes on him when Tampa was in the zone.
The result was an offense that worked the middle of the field and added extra yards after the catch (YAC) like 49ers teams of recent years. The Niners had a season-high in YAC (175) while racking up 210 passing yards between the numbers (third best this season).
Purdy put together one of the best second halves of his young career, breaking up Tampa’s intense defensive attack and distributing the ball to all of his pass catchers.
San Francisco had five players with more than 50 yards receiving. In addition to McCaffrey, receivers Jauan Jennings (93), Deebo Samuel Sr. (62) and Ricky Pearsall (73) and tight end George Kittle (50) all topped 50, tying a franchise record for receivers with 50-plus yards. . in a game. The 49ers have done it three other times.
“When he’s out there it’s hard to double-cover someone because if you do that, you’re leaving Christian one-on-one against a linebacker a lot of the time,” Kittle said. “He opens up that area for us… He makes everyone else’s life a lot easier.”
Perhaps no one will benefit more than Purdy. After a sloppy first half in which he missed high on multiple throws, Purdy settled down, going 10 of 14 for 160 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter. With McCaffrey available as a safety valve, Purdy ignited Tampa’s attack, going 13 of 15 for 225 yards and a touchdown as the Bucs sent in an extra pass rusher. That included 8 of 10 for 138 yards in the fourth quarter, Purdy’s most completions and yards against the blitz in a quarter of his career.
There is a lot of work to be done for McCaffrey to fully return and for the offense to take the next step and regularly finish red zone drives with touchdowns.
Maybe that will happen as soon as Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks (4:05 p.m. ET, Fox), a team McCaffrey has had a lot of success against in his career. McCaffrey averages 163 yards from scrimmage per game against Seattle in his career, the third-highest mark for any player with five games against a single team in NFL history, according to ESPN Research.
McCaffrey has recorded at least 125 yards from scrimmage in all six games he played against the Seahawks. If he can do it again on Sunday, he would join Jim Brown (against Philadelphia) as the only players with seven consecutive games of 125+ yards from scrimmage against an opponent in NFL history (including playoffs).
By his own account, McCaffrey wasn’t exactly where he wanted to be in his debut, but he didn’t look or feel that far off either.
“There are a couple of things where I maybe didn’t feel 100 percent myself,” McCaffrey said. “But that’s normal when you haven’t played in a long time. I’ll learn and grow from that and keep moving forward.”
