Finally, it appears the San Francisco 49ers have received some good news from an injury standpoint. NFL Media recently reported that star running back Christian McCaffrey has a "very good chance" to make his 2024 debut in Week 10, following the 49ers' bye. McCaffrey has missed the first seven weeks of the season due to Achilles tendinitis in both legs.
This lines up with what 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said on Monday following San Francisco's 28-18 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Shanahan said he would be surprised if McCaffrey played this Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, but that he could be on the field for Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the bye.
As NFL Media noted on Monday, McCaffrey has been running on flat ground as he begins ramping up for his return. McCaffrey is eligible to have his practice window opened, but the 49ers have yet to do so. Whenever they do, the club will have 21 days to activate McCaffrey onto the active roster, or else he'll revert to injured reserve for the rest of the season.
"No new updates other than he's doing incredibly well," general manager John Lynch told KNBR last week. "It's all about the ramp-up, increasing the activity, making sure that there's no setbacks. I [can] just tell people he's on a good track with that. No timelines or anything, but he's doing a little bit more -- not each day. We kind of stagger it, work hard one day, kind of go into more of a [regeneration] day the next day. But when you can start to stack those ... that's a good thing, and that's kind of the direction he's trending in."
With the loss to the Chiefs on Sunday, the 49ers have fallen to 3-4 on the season and are in desperate need of some reinforcements, particularly after Brandon Aiyuk suffered a season-ending knee injury during Sunday's loss.
McCaffrey, who led the NFL with a career-high 1,459 rushing yards in 2023, has yet to take a single snap for the team this year. Made the league's highest-paid running back this offseason, he endured a significant injury history before landing with the 49ers in 2022, missing a combined 23 games from 2020-2021.
Mason has excelled as a runner in McCaffrey's absence, leading the NFL with 667 yards rushing and three touchdowns through seven games. That said, reinserting a talent like McCaffrey in the near future will do wonders for San Francisco in their hopes to get the 2024 campaign back on track.