Some expect the San Francisco 49ers to look different with running back Christian McCaffrey coming out of the backfield. However, it's not as though head coach Kyle Shanahan is making drastic changes to his offensive game plans because of McCaffrey's well-established versatility.
McCaffrey, dangerous in both the rushing and passing attack, is just another weapon at Shanahan's disposal. The game plan won't necessarily change—at least, not yet. But McCaffrey's ability to make things happen on the football field gives the 49ers more options.
"You run the same offense. It's how you spread the ball around," Shanahan said Thursday on KNBR's Tolbert & Copes show. "We do get our backs the ball in the run game and the pass game. ... We don't have any backs who can't do stuff in the pass game, but we just added a back who excels in the pass game. So it does add more there.
"It gives you another option, but you don't know how that's going to play out in a game. It's nice to have a big threat at halfback there, where you feel like a WILL linebacker or an outside linebacker or safety are going to have a tough time guarding him. And defenses think that too when they watch tape."
Shanahan notes that McCaffrey's ability to create big plays opens things up for the 49ers' other offensive weapons like wide receiver Deebo Samuel, tight end George Kittle, or receiver Brandon Aiyuk. That's a lot of players to try to stop. If a defense focuses on one more than the others, other options will open up.
McCaffrey has already impressed his new head coach. The running back arrived last Friday. He was suited up and played on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.
"I was very impressed," Shanahan said. "That's why, before he got here, when [general manager John] Lynch asked me if we were going to play him, I said, 'No way. That's too much to ask of a guy. I'm not going to put that pressure on him, coming in here on a Friday when we're playing Sunday.'
"... As soon as I talked to him Thursday night, he was adamant that he was going to be ready, which definitely softened me up a little bit. So I started to think, 'Man, he feels this confident. Let's just see how it goes, and we won't rule anything out.'
"By the time we were talking to him Saturday night, with the work he had put in, you could tell he felt extremely confident in the plays we were asking him to do. So that made me feel much better playing him."
McCaffrey played 22 snaps against the Chiefs, and he was effective too. He wasn't just in there for the plays he had learned in the 48 hours leading to the game.
"It even happened that there was a couple of plays that we didn't go over with him that he was able to learn on the sidelines and go in there and be productive," Shanahan added.
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.
