Ed McCaffrey warns San Francisco against limiting his son’s workload, arguing the dual-threat superstar must stay on the field to maximize the offense's tactical advantage despite injury risks.
Just two years ago, Christian McCaffrey was voted the third-best player in the NFL by his peers — and for good reason. During the 2023-24 season, McCaffrey rushed for 1,459 yards and 14 touchdowns, while adding another 564 yards through the air with seven touchdowns.
But the following season, McCaffrey got hurt. He appeared in just four games in 2024-25.
That led us to the 2025-26 season, where McCaffrey again had a massive impact on the Niners' rushing and passing attack.
The correlation between McCaffrey's high usage and injuries has always been a concern among NFL fans — especially for fantasy football managers who roster the back.
But McCaffrey's father, the great Ed McCaffrey, doesn't want to see his son's workload dip. In a recent interview with Kyle Odegard for Casino.org, the senior McCaffrey delivered a message to head coach Kyle Shanahan.
“The thing about Christian is, he is an every-down back,” McCaffrey said. “I think it’s safe to say he’s the greatest receiving running back in the history of the league. There’s not multiple Christians to put in the game. He can run receiver routes and play the slot, and when you have a player like that, it dictates to the defense what they can do from a personnel standpoint," McCaffrey said.
There's a reason Shanahan and the Niners brass jumped at the opportunity to make McCaffrey the focal point of San Francisco's offense when they traded second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks for the star back in 2022 — and his father's assessment perfectly explains why.
“You’ve got to be careful bringing in run-stoppers when he splits out to slot receiver, because somebody’s got to guard him. So you’re going to play zone, use somebody that can’t cover him in man-to-man coverage, or you’re going to bring in a nickelback, where then you can load up and run the ball," McCaffrey continued. "There are not a lot of players that can do that, so it gives you an advantage on offense when you have a player like that in the game all the time.”
Read that last line again for me. "In the game all the time?" That's right, McCaffrey is opposing any sort of load management for his son, despite Christian's injury history.
McCaffrey followed up his scouting report with a message that seemed to be directed at Shanahan, advising the offensive mastermind to be careful when it comes to saving his son's legs.
"A coach’s job is to win. You can rest your players if you want. But if you lose, the NFL does stand for Not For Long," McCaffrey said. "Regardless of what a coach will say about resting a player, every coach knows that they have to do so carefully. You never know when there’s a play out there that will be the difference between your team winning and losing.”
The NFC West remains one of the league's most-talented divisions. Now forced to topple the reigning Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks and the Myles Garret-led LA Rams, the Niners will need McCaffrey to stay healthy and involved if they hope to gain their third division title of the 2020s.
