Are 49ers better off with less Christian McCaffrey? Maybe so with this rookie RB

Less Christian McCaffrey … the better for the 49ers?Hear the guy out, at least.“I think when it comes to the run game, when you can keep backs fresh,” the Niners’ all-purpose superstar said this week, “it’s a good change of pace for defenses, and it also can help keep the run game going.It doesn’t really eliminate people’s touches.”It’s actually not so crazy, not after the load Kyle Shanahan’s favorite weapon carried last season.

Moderation is the key to a lot of things in life, and it turns out taking a pounding from NFL tacklers is no exception. There hadn’t been a player since Demarco Murray in 2014 to get the ball as many times as McCaffrey.But more touches — 413 of them — didn’t necessarily equate to better outcomes.McCaffrey averaged fewer than 4 yards per carry for the first time since joining the 49ers in 2022.

As a team, San Francisco’s running game was not only its least efficient in Shanahan’s nine seasons — its 3.8 yards per carry were its fewest since Dennis Erickson was in charge.With the weight increasingly on his shoulders as teammates seemingly went down week after week, McCaffrey looked around the league and saw a better way of doing things.In Atlanta, Bijan Robinson took fewer handoffs from the year before but put up the most yards from scrimmage of his career, the most in the NFL.In Detroit, Jahmyr Gibbs did something similar.

Both running backs kept up with or exceeded their career outputs while minimizing the bruising they took in the process.That’s because they had capable backups helping them out.David Montgomery took 36% of the Lions’ carries; Tyler Allgeier picked up 30% of the load for the Falcons.In San Francisco, McCaffrey was a man on an island.

He had no such luxury.He accounted for 65% of the 49ers’ handoffs; the next-closest player was Brian Robinson, at less than 20%.It doesn’t have to be that way.And just one game into this season, it would appear that won’t be the case again.McC...