49ers’ Kyle Shanahan Reveals 2024 Plan For Christian McCaffrey

San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey led the NFL with 339 touches last season, and head coach Kyle Shanahan would like to reduce that number for 2024.

While discussing his plan for McCaffrey this coming season, Shanahan said a big part of it would be cutting the superstar’s workload in order to preserve him long term.

“We have guys that can run the ball,” Shanahan said, via David Lombardi of The Athletic. “We have to protect Christian from himself. He doesn’t like to ever come out no matter what the situation is and I do think that’s something we could protect him with more.”

What makes McCaffrey’s usage so astronomically high is because he is nearly as much of a receiving threat out of the backfield as he is as a rusher.

“When you are such a threat in the pass game, it’s a little bit different,” Shanahan said. “… But if he’s just taking the wear and tear with 20 carries and stuff every game — and he’s definitely good enough to do that and he has proved he can stay healthy — but you’d like to take some of that off of him and give it to other guys also.”

Elijah Mitchell was the 49ers’ second-leading rusher in 2023, finishing with 281 yards to McCaffrey’s league-leading 1,459. Jordan Mason totaled 206 yards. San Francisco also selected Isaac Guerendo in the fourth round of the NFL Draft this past April.

The 49ers are loaded on both sides of the ball

The good news for the Niners is that they are absolutely stacked both offensively and defensively, so they should easily be able to survive a decrease in McCaffrey’s touches.

The 49ers boast a very impressive duo of wide receivers in Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel, not to mention one of the NFL’s best tight ends in George Kittle.

Plus, San Francisco has a pretty fine quarterback in Brock Purdy.

Of course, the Niners also have a terrific defense that features superstars such as Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, which certainly makes the job of the offense a lot easier.

The 49ers won 12 games and made it all the way to the Super Bowl this past season, where they ultimately fell to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime.

Nevertheless, San Francisco lays claim to arguably the best roster in the NFL, so it should be back in championship contention again in 2024.

We’ll see if Christian McCaffrey vaults himself into the MVP conversation for the second straight year.