San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey made his 2024 season debut on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, playing 56 offensive snaps—88% of the total. It was a hefty workload for the star, who recently recovered from a prolonged struggle with Achilles tendinitis.
Fortunately, McCaffrey emerged from the Week 10 matchup in good shape. When asked how he felt post-game, he responded, "Felt good. I think the strength staff and training staff did a great job of not just helping me get healthy again, but also preparing to play. So definitely was sore, but felt good."
Reviewing his performance, McCaffrey had a positive takeaway.
"I think the tape was good," he shared. "You always want to break more tackles and make great plays and stuff like that. But just good to get back into the feel of it. I think there's positives and negatives to not playing for a long time. The negatives are you're not getting hit all the time, so you don't develop that kind of callousness. But the positives are you don't think so much. You just go out there and play.
"I actually felt like my eyes were pretty good, looking back, and it's just about getting back into the groove of things. But I feel great now."
McCaffrey tallied 107 scrimmage yards in the 23-20 win and is now focused on facing the Seattle Seahawks this weekend, acknowledging that it will likely be another challenging matchup.
"This is a division game, at home, with a good team," McCaffrey said. "We know what this game's about, and it's just going to be about going out there and executing and playing as hard as humanly possible."
He also dispelled the misconception that not playing guarantees fresh legs, sharing that he struggled to walk to the bathroom at one point.
"You can't train for a long time, so [your legs are] fresh in the sense that they haven't been beat up," McCaffrey explained. "But also, you have to get back into training. I think that's why it takes a little bit long sometimes. It was a lot of long days and just a lot of taking it one day at a time. But now, I feel great, getting back into the rhythm of things, and feel good."