Christian McCaffrey took every rep in Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Rams, with Elijah Mitchell sitting on the bench. McCaffrey has taken 91.7% of the reps during the two weeks of training.
McCaffrey said, “I think it’s all dependent on how the game’s going. We had a lot of breaks last game. Sometimes, that’s just how it goes. There’s gonna be games, too, where Mitchell gets four or five carries in a row on multiple drives because he’s playing well, and he’s feeling it, and I’ll be out.
It’s really such a situational thing. You know, I don’t think it’s ever a plan for us to get all the carries or not. It’s just sometimes that’s just how the games go.”
The Niners had a short week coming up, but it was a surprise when Mitchell didn’t get any run at all. Kyle Shanahan, Head Coach of the Niners, admitted that earlier this week, it was an oversight on his part.
McCaffrey’s workload on a weekly basis
While playing every move is transparent, it wasn’t as if McCaffrey’s workload was insane. He took 20 carries Sunday after 22 in Week 1. He had a total of 48 touches in the two-week duration.
However, it is seen that McCaffrey just had one game last season with 20-plus carries after entering into the Niners. Given his injury, it is expected that Mitchell will get as many carries as possible as the season progresses, particularly on a short week against the New York Giants this Thursday.
McCaffrey played 100 percent of the offensive snaps for his team, with a total of 15 times throughout his career. Most of the running backs have only done about ten times in that same time span.
Sunday was marked as the first time McCaffrey played 100 percent of his snaps since Week 15 of 2019 with the Panthers.
McCaffrey leads the NFL with over 268 rush yards during the two-week duration. It’s the most rushing yards in his career and the first time to go over 200 yards, as per NFL Research.
His 304 scrimmage yards are the top compared to all the RBs and are also second-most overall.
McCaffrey is the first 49ers player with 100-plus rush yards and 1-plus rush TD to reach since Garrison Hearst in 1998. Christian McCaffrey could become the first player in the team’s history to achieve in the season’s first three games.
Also Read: Sean Fitzpatrick’s Opinion on the All Blacks: ‘We Require Our Larger, More Powerful Players
