There has been plenty of speculation about San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey's return to the field. Some believed the star playmaker could return as early as this Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs. However, that won't happen, as McCaffrey remains on injured reserve, and the 49ers have yet to open his practice window.
It now seems likely that the 49ers will wait until after the bye week to begin ramping up McCaffrey's activity. They hope to have him available for the second half of the season.
General manager John Lynch discussed McCaffrey's status during a Friday morning appearance on Bay Area radio station KNBR.
"No new updates other than he's doing incredibly well," Lynch said. "It's all about the ramp up, increasing the activity, making sure that there's no setbacks. I could 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 and not have setbacks, that's a good thing, and that's kind of the direction he's trending in."
Jordan Mason making progress
Jordan Mason has done an admirable job filling in for McCaffrey. Unfortunately, he suffered an AC joint sprain against the Seattle Seahawks last week. While Mason has been limited in practice this week, his condition is improving.
"JP's (Mason) been out here this week in a blue jersey that basically tells everyone, 'Stay away, don't touch him,'" Lynch shared. "He's a tough guy. I think it bodes well that he's been out here, but we've gotta see that he gets to Sunday and feels comfortable with contact and all that. But JP's tough, and I'm betting on ... JP will, hopefully, be out there for us."
On Thursday, head coach Kyle Shanahan also expressed optimism about Mason's availability for this weekend's game against the Chiefs.
"He's doing good," Shanahan said. "We've stayed off him all week, just so we [don't] hurt him or make it any worse. Put him in a blue jersey so nobody hits him too hard. He's doing good. He's had something like this before, so I think he'll be good by Sunday."
You can listen to Lynch's entire interview below.