Christian McCaffrey is in the midst of his first full offseason with the San Francisco 49ers. The star running back was thrown into the offense last season following a trade from the Carolina Panthers. All he did after that was produce 1,210 all-purpose yards and 10 total touchdowns. That added up to a ridiculous 1,880 all-purpose yards and 13 total touchdowns on the season.
2023 might be even better.
"Isn't he special? Goodness gracious, he is fantastic," teammate George Kittle said Friday on KNBR. "Huge fan of him."
The tight end knows that McCaffrey changes how an opposing defense game plans against the 49ers. He's not just a threat out of the backfield. His gaudy statistics from last season show that McCaffrey can do it all.
And now, the running back has an even better understanding of head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense. It almost seems unfair.
"When you have a running back—you know what, I don't even want to do him the disservice," Kittle said. "He's more than a running back. He really is. He is a skill position [player]. ... He is not just a running back because, yes, can he take 30 carries in the backfield? For sure. And he's going to have a great game. But you can line up in the slot, and you can do all the routes. All of it. Like, whether it's me, [WR] Deebo [Samuel], or [WR Brandon] Aiyuk, Christian does those routes too. And it's just absolutely fantastic when you have a running back that can do that.
"And then you can just [say], 'Hey, we're in 11-personnel, four wide receivers, one tight end, and ... oh, wow, Deebo is at running back and Christian's in the slot.' Wait, what do you do defensively versus this? Are you just going to leave a linebacker on Christian? What's your check that you're going to make?"
Shanahan was already considered a brilliant play-designer and play-caller. Now, he has another one of the most dynamic playmakers in the NFL at his disposal.
"It's just really fun because Kyle can be super creative with our offensive plays, and having too many mouths to feed is a great problem," Kittle continued. "It really is. It might be hard to have five 1,000-yard receivers, but hey, if we're winning games and our best players are touching the ball, making plays, that's all that really matters."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Kittle below.