San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan urged lately that he may wish to go a bit of bit simpler on one in every of his star gamers.
Shanahan mentioned a slight discount in working again Christian McCaffrey’s workload after the star working again led the league with 339 touches in 2023. Shanahan acknowledged that McCaffrey hates popping out of video games, however that the 49ers have an obligation to “defend (him) from himself.”
“We have now to guard Christian from himself,” Shanahan admitted, via Matt Barrows and David Lombardi of The Athletic. “He doesn’t prefer to ever come out it doesn’t matter what the state of affairs is and I do assume that’s one thing we might defend him with extra. When you find yourself such a risk within the cross sport, it’s a bit of bit totally different. … But when he’s simply taking the wear and tear and tear with 20 carries and stuff each sport — and he’s positively ok to try this and he has proved he can keep wholesome — however you’d prefer to take a few of that off of him and provides it to different guys additionally.”
McCaffrey was so very important to the 49er offense in 2023 that the group had hassle taking him off the sector. He rewarded them with 2,023 all-purpose yards and 21 complete touchdowns, however the group will surely prefer to must rely a bit much less on him going ahead. They managed to keep away from any actual accidents regardless of his heavy utilization, although there were definitely a few scares.
McCaffrey will most likely want to atone for a very big mistake he made within the Tremendous Bowl, however that’s the reason Shanahan is speaking in regards to the necessity of defending him whether or not he likes it or not.