49ers Plan Stricter McCaffrey Rotation After 450-Touch Season

49ers Plan Stricter McCaffrey Rotation After 450-Touch Season

San Francisco 49ers coaches have committed to limiting running back Christian McCaffrey’s snap count in the coming season after he accumulated 450 combined carries and receptions across the 2025 regular season and playoffs – a workload the coaching staff acknowledges was excessive. McCaffrey, who turned 29 during the season and turned 30 recently, has said he sees no need for restrictions on game days, arguing that workload management belongs in practice, not during matches.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan attributed last season’s heavy usage to a wave of injuries across the offense that left McCaffrey as the most dependable option at multiple positions. Quarterback Brock Purdy, tight end George Kittle, and receiver Ricky Pearsall all missed significant time, making it difficult for the coaching staff to pull McCaffrey even when they intended to. He played 83 percent of the team’s offensive snaps and logged 1,010 snaps across the regular season and playoffs, making him just the ninth running back in 20 seasons to surpass 1,000 snaps. Running backs coach Bobby Turner said he failed to manage the rotation adequately and that the full coaching staff would be more actively involved going forward.

The concern has a statistical basis: the two previous seasons in which McCaffrey exceeded 400 touches – 2019 with the Carolina Panthers and 2023 with San Francisco – were each followed by seasons in which he missed 13 games through injury. Despite producing 2,126 yards from scrimmage in 2025 and earning a Pro Bowl selection, he generated only three runs of 20 yards or more, compared with nine in his last healthy season in 2023, when he won the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year award.

To create room for a genuine rotation, the 49ers used a third-round pick in the most recent draft on Indiana running back Kaelon Black, who joins second-year back Jordan James. James, a fifth-round selection in 2025, was hampered by a training-camp injury and appeared in only limited action during the season. Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said the league’s most productive backs routinely receive rest periods within games and that San Francisco’s staff must apply the same discipline with McCaffrey to restore the explosive-play output the offense has relied upon.