McCaffrey brothers turn 49ers-Commanders clash into a family affair

Take a look at the Commanders’ depth chart.Find the wide receivers.Peruse the list of names.Keep going.

Further.Way, way … way down there.Recognize that one?Yeah, the game-day ensemble for Ed and Lisa McCaffrey won’t be so simple on Monday.“I don’t know what they’re gonna do,” 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey chuckled this week.

“They might just go all black — neutral.”A 13-year pro, Ed raised all four of his sons as football players.Christian would often team up or face off against first-born Max, 2 years his elder, and third-born Dylan, 3 years younger.One memorable clip surfaced of Christian, at 7 years old, scoring a touchdown as the youngest player on his older brother’s pee-wee team in a game at Mile High Stadium, where his father played most of his career.

The real kicker? The celebration — and the competition.Christian dodged a field of NFL mascots, pulled out a Sharpie to sign the football and tossed it into the crowd after scoring — clearly a sign of things to come.“Those were days,” McCaffrey grinned, “I used to be way cooler.”But one pairing required both brothers to make it to the NFL to share the field.Finally, on Monday, Christian will face off against his youngest brother, Luke McCaffrey. “He’s the only brother I’ve never gotten to play with or against, so I think this completes the cycle,” McCaffrey said.“I know it’s a different uniform, but [I’m] proud of him and everything that he’s done.”Luke has a long way to go to catch Christian’s 103 career touchdowns (and counting), but the youngest McCaffrey brother, now 25, has carved out a nice little career of his own.You may not see him catching passes from Jayden Daniels — all 29 of his career receptions came in 2024 and 2025 — but McCaffrey has been the Commanders’ primary kick returner.In his career, McCaffrey has returned 41 kicks for 1,191 yards — or a little over half the total yards from scrimmage his older brother put up la...