Silver: 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey the MVP “right now for sure, in my opinion”

What more does San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey have to do to prove he is worthy of MVP consideration? Leading the NFL in rushing attempts (80), rushing yards (459), and rushing touchdowns (6), he's a force to be reckoned with on the football field. His 98 touches for 600 all-purpose yards and seven total touchdowns are also league-highs.

Maybe McCaffrey needs to throw for 4,000 yards to solidify his MVP case. Historically, the league award tends to favor quarterbacks. The last non-quarterback to claim this honor was running back Adrian Peterson in 2012, the lone instance of a non-quarterback doing so since 2007.

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If the season ended today and one NFL writer had the deciding vote, McCaffrey would undoubtedly be the frontrunner for the MVP title.

"Look, he's the MVP right now for sure, in my opinion," Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle said Wednesday morning on KNBR's "Murph and Mac" show. "And I know a running back hasn't won it since Adrian Peterson in 2012, but it's a combination of he's perfect for this offense with the versatility, and if he were just a classic running back in any offense and nothing else, he'd still be awesome.

"And he's more physical and angrier on the field as a runner than I really understood. And I think that's growing, and that's a function of knowing the offense better and just maybe accessing that anger a little more."

Some of that may also be that McCaffrey played most of his career with the Carolina Panthers. His brilliance may have been overshadowed by the team's less-than-memorable seasons in Charlotte.

Now, on a team poised for a Super Bowl run, McCaffrey is finally receiving the national attention he deserves.

"When a guy can kind of have the balance and the instincts to know to hurdle a guy in stride and then immediately pivot to I'm running through two people on the way to the end zone, it's special," Silver continued. "And I think the most interesting thing is how well he fits into this culture. The maniacal work ethic, the perfectionism, the physicality, the kind of surly way of going about things on Sundays.

"The 49ers have a lot of those guys on offense and defense, and they stand out, and they're some of the best players in the league. So to add this guy to that, that's pretty crazy."

You can listen to the entire conversation with Silver below.