While the San Francisco 49ers’ brass was having the annual discussion about reducing Christian McCaffrey’s workload, the running back was busy crawling like a lizard and rolling around like an ape.No, he hasn’t snapped from all the wear and tear. The animal-like movements, which McCaffrey posted videos of on social media this spring, help get him ready for the 49ers’ organized team activities, which started this week, and the upcoming season.“I’ve been doing those for a long time, actually,” he said over the phone last month. “Those are always funny because it just looks so weird, but they’re very challenging to put your body in. It’s like a full-body core exercise in that it’s difficult to do, but your joints have to activate in different motions and different planes that you’re probably not used to being in.“And they’re really fun to do.”
The explosive movements are especially good for his core, hips and shoulders and help build strength, balance and agility. If they help mixed martial arts fighters, they’re also good for elite running backs.“I started following (Israeli trainer) Ido Portal a long time ago, back when he was working with Conor McGregor,” McCaffrey said. “I’ve just been fascinated with it and incorporated some of it into my training. A couple times a week, especially early in the offseason.“We’ll do a lot of those just to kind of reprogram everything, get moving again, learn how to fall, learn how to roll and get in positions that you’re not used to being in.”For all the talk of McCaffrey’s workload last season — he led the NFL with a career-high 413 touches, then added 37 more in the playoffs — he didn’t waste any time getting back to the gym.“I started right after the season,” he said. “I start from scratch — a lot of treatment, a lot of mobility stuff and then you start the conditioning. … One thing I’ve learned is to take too much time off is not always the best thing. So I’m kind of always working.“Might take a four-day trip for vacation and get away for a little bit, but it’s pretty much a full offseason program.”McCaffrey turns 30 in 10 days and is coming off a season in which he played 83 percent of the 49ers’ offensive snaps, his highest in more than three seasons with San Francisco. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan knows he says it every year, but he really wants to manage the running back’s workload this season.“Last year was the worst we had been at it,” Shanahan told “The Tom Tolbert Show” last week. “It’s one of the most amazing years I’ve seen by a guy in terms of just heart. He’s just incredible.”Besides running the ball 311 times for 1,202 yards and 10 touchdowns, McCaffrey stepped up in the passing game, as the 49ers’ receivers kept getting injured. He had 102 catches for 924 yards and seven touchdowns. His 413 touches were the most in a regular season since 2014. Including the playoffs, McCaffrey finished with 450 touches, the fourth most in NFL history by a player 29 or older.“The fact that he could get his body ready every Sunday for 17 weeks was amazing to me,” Shanahan said. “The load he had to carry with all the injury issues we had at receiver — he was such a pivotal part in the pass game and the run game.”The 49ers drafted running back Jordan James last year and then Kaelon Black this year, with the hope of keeping McCaffrey fresher this season. History suggests the Niners will need them. After McCaffrey had 403 touches for 2,392 yards in 2019, he missed all but three games because of injury in 2020. He topped 2,000 scrimmage yards again in 2023, then missed all but four games in 2024. One of the 49ers’ number crunchers surely pointed that out to Shanahan.Chiropractor Tomo Harada works on Christian McCaffrey before a playoff game in Philadelphia in January. (Michael Zagaris / San Francisco 49ers / Getty Images)McCaffrey was actually more explosive when he had a higher workload. His explosive touch rate was 11 percent in games with 25 or more touches, compared to 4 percent in other games, per TruMedia. And the 49ers were 8-0 in the first group of games.Overall, though, McCaffrey finished the season with 3.9 yards per carry and three runs of 20-plus yards, his worst marks in a season (minimum of eight games) since 2020.“I want him to have more juice. … He doesn’t have to take that beating when it’s unnecessary,” Shanahan said. “I’m hoping we can have some other guys step up more this year so you don’t feel like you need him on the field every play.”McCaffrey smiles when he hears all this.“Look, nobody ever wants to hear that you’re going to get the ball less,” he said. “But … no coach has ever planned how many touches I get. I’ve never had that conversation with any one of my coaches that we want to give you this many touches.“That’s like telling a 3-point shooter that we only want you to shoot five 3s this game. You just don’t do that.”Niners offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said it had been “challenging” to get McCaffrey off the field, in part because he is so good. And …“You’re talking about a player who does not want to come off the field,” Kubiak said. “But when you look around the league and you study great backs and study guys who affect the game like he does, those guys do come out of the game. Those guys do get a blow, whether it’s a drive or a couple plays in a series, and it helps those players.“Christian knows that, and we’ve got to do a better job as coaches of getting a better rotation. It’s something that’s got to be at the forefront of our minds.”Shanahan added that McCaffrey even gets “extremely insulted” when the topic of fewer touches comes up.But McCaffrey said he gets it. It’s just not going to affect the way he trains.“It’s probably a load management thing for them more than anything,” he said. “But my job is not to focus on that at all. It’s just to be ready for 10 touches or 35, whatever the game calls for. … So when (Shanahan) says that stuff, I don’t get mad at all.“I don’t get mad or sad or whatever. I just train and prepare to have 35 touches a game and not come out.”McCaffrey had a league-high five games with at least 30 touches last season. The rest of the league combined had six, according to TruMedia.And, actually, McCaffrey said he “felt great” after the historic workload.“Sometimes you can get through a season with 400-plus touches and feel great, and sometimes you might only put in three games and you feel terrible. I’ve experienced both,” he said. “And so, for me, it’s all about how you prepare, and then you have to be very blessed to stay healthy. Football’s a very brutal sport.”McCaffrey’s taken a lot of hits after nine seasons and 12,979 total yards. And it was just a year ago that he was coming off that injury-plagued 2024 in which Achilles and knee injuries cost him 13 games.“This was one of the hardest years of my life,” McCaffrey said. “I kind of had to overcome a lot of odds.”He came back to play all 19 games, including the playoffs, and was very proud of a team that fought through so many injuries to advance to the divisional round. McCaffrey wants to win a Super Bowl. He said many of his veteran teammates have that “same chip on their shoulders,” having come so close in 2024.So does a new teammate. Receiver Mike Evans left the Buccaneers after 12 seasons for less money to sign with the 49ers because he thought it was his best shot at another Super Bowl ring.“I was so fired up when we got Mike,” McCaffrey said. “As a fan of football, I’ve been watching him for a long time. I love the way he plays the game. He’s aggressive, he’s one of the best deep-ball guys in NFL history, he blocks his ass off and he has so much wisdom.“In my opinion, he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and he’s going to fit our team so well.”McCaffrey can’t wait for the season to kick off in Australia in September. Until then, he will be on the practice field, in the gym, in the pool or crawling around like a lizard on the grass.“Sundays are so much fun for me,” he said. “I am still like a kid when it comes to playing in games, and training hard is something you have to do to earn the right to play on Sundays. I would be lying if I said I always feel like training or always enjoy it.“But your goals and aspirations don’t really care how you feel.”
