Christian McCaffrey's return has 49ers returning to roots

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- In some ways, Christian McCaffrey's return to the San Francisco 49ers'lineup Sunday was nothing new.

Through his first seven NFL seasons, McCaffrey has seen and done nearly everything a player can experience, including return from significant injuries. Yet, in the moments before his team's eventual 23-20 win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, McCaffrey found himself stopping, breathing and feeling every step of the road back from bilateral Achilles tendinitis.

"I try to feel emotions as they come," McCaffrey said. "I try to stay even-keeled, and obviously there's a lot of emotion when you play an NFL football game... Nobody wants to be on the field more than me. Just to be out there again, to be honest with you, you really realize how much of a privilege it is to play football."

After an eight-game, nine-week delay, McCaffrey made his 2024 debut against the Buccaneers and, despite an initial plan to ease McCaffrey back in a bit more, his role looked awfully similar to the one he had in 2023 when he won the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year award.

McCaffrey was on the field for 57 plays, a whopping 88% of the team's offensive snaps and six more than he averaged last season. McCaffrey managed 107 scrimmage yards on 19 touches, a shade below the 126.4 and 21 he averaged last season.

Perhaps McCaffrey's sizable immediate role should be no surprise given his importance to the offense in past seasons and, more pressing, their hopes of piecing together a second-half surge.

"He came out great, which was huge," 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. "We knew it was going to be hard to load-manage him."

On the surface, McCaffrey's return wasn't quite the panacea the Niners might have hoped. It didn't lead to an offensive outburst in which touchdowns were plentiful. San Francisco struggled once again in the red zone, scoring a touchdown on just one of its three trips inside Tampa's 20.

Still, McCaffrey offered some of his usual highlight-reel moments, including the basket catch he made from quarterback Brock Purdy for a 30-yard gain with the 49ers trailing by four in the fourth quarter.

It was the longest reception of the season by a 49ers running back. McCaffrey's six receptions for 68 yards nearly surpassed backup Jordan Mason's 10 catches for 86 yards in the first eight games combined.

"For defenses, they have to scheme that up," Purdy said. "They have to acknowledge him, which can open up some other guys."

Indeed, simply having McCaffrey back on the field helped the 49ers offense begin to get back to its roots. Much like other teams that have played the 49ers this season, the Bucs played more man coverage than usual, dropping from their preferred zone coverage rate of 75.7% average to 60% against San Francisco.

On multiple occasions, McCaffrey either found himself in single coverage against a linebacker (he beat the Bucs' Lavonte David for the 30-yarder) in man or with multiple eyes on him when Tampa was in zone.

The result was an offense that worked the middle of the field and tacked on extra yards after the catch (YAC) like 49ers teams of recent years. The Niners had a season high in YAC (175) while racking up 210 passing yards between the numbers (third best this season).

Purdy put together one of the best second halves of his young career, diced up Tampa's blitz-heavy defensive attack and spread the ball around to all of his pass catchers.

San Francisco had five players with 50-plus receiving yards. In addition to McCaffrey, receivers Jauan Jennings (93),Deebo Samuel Sr.(62) and Ricky Pearsall (73) and tight end George Kittle (50) all went over 50, tying a franchise record for the most 50-plus yard receivers in a game. The 49ers have done it three other times.

"When he's out there it's hard to double-cover anybody because if you do that, then you're leaving Christian one-on-one on a linebacker most of the time," Kittle said. "He opens that area up for us... He makes everyone's else's life much easier."

Nobody, perhaps, benefits more than Purdy. After a sloppy first half in which he missed high on multiple throws, Purdy settled in, going 10-of-14 for 160 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter. With McCaffrey available as a safety valve, Purdy torched Tampa's blitz, going 13-of-15 for 225 yards and a touchdown when the Bucs sent an extra pass rusher. That included 8-of-10 for 138 yards in the fourth quarter, Purdy's most completions and pass yards against the blitz in a quarter in his career.

There is plenty of work to be done to get McCaffrey fully reintegrated and for the offense to take the next step where its regularly finishing red zone drives with touchdowns.

Maybe that will happen as soon as Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks(4:05 p.m. ET, Fox), a team McCaffrey has had plenty of success against in his career. McCaffrey averages 163 scrimmage yards per game against Seattle in his career, the third-highest mark by any player with five games against a single team in NFL history, according to ESPN Research.

McCaffrey has posted at least 125 scrimmage yards in all six games he has played against the Seahawks. If he can do it again Sunday, he would join Jim Brown (vs. Philadelphia) as the only players with seven straight games of 125-plus scrimmage yards against an opponent in NFL history (including playoffs).

By his own account, McCaffrey wasn't quite where he wanted to be in his debut, but he also didn't look or feel that far off.

"There's a couple of things that maybe I didn't feel like myself 100 percent," McCaffrey said. "But that's normal when you haven't played in a long time. I'll learn and grow from those and keep trucking along."