NFL situations are often overanalyzed by the media, and that may be the case with San Francisco 49ers star running back Christian McCaffrey's recent training camp setback.

McCaffrey has not practiced since August 8, when he was sidelined by what the 49ers described as "tightness." No further details about the setback have been reported.


According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, some believe McCaffrey could be leveraging his situation for a pay bump after coming off a 2025 campaign in which he was heavily featured in the 49ers' offense. McCaffrey led the NFL with 413 touches while recording 2,126 scrimmage yards and 17 total touchdowns.

"There's speculation in league circles that McCaffrey has tapped the brakes on his practice time in an effort to get an adjustment to his contract, which pays out a non-guaranteed $12.5 million in 2026," Florio wrote.

"The timeline fits the hypothesis. Days after Falcons running back Bijan Robinson and Lions running back Jaymyr Gibbs pushed the new-money APY to $22.5 million per year, McCaffrey stopped practicing."

Of course, this appears to be pure speculation. There are no facts supporting the theory—just a timeline that fits the narrative. We'll have to wait and see whether anything develops to suggest the speculation has any merit. For now, it simply seems like a new conspiracy theory crafted to create headlines.

Last week, head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about McCaffrey's status and whether there were any concerns that the running back's setback could linger longer than expected.


"No," Shanahan responded. "My concern would be him toughing through tightness, like a lot of people do, and then hurting something bad, and then pulling something, which then, it could be a month. That would be our concern, so once we hear him talking a certain way, Christian's a guy who needs to get prepared for Week 1.

"But also, we're pretty confident in what he's done before, we're confident in what he's done these two weeks, and we just want to make sure we don't make it something to be concerned about."

It's unlikely McCaffrey would have played much in the preseason anyway. That, combined with the 49ers' confidence in the running back despite his lack of significant practice reps, should ease concerns about his availability for Week 1.

McCaffrey and the 49ers will open the regular season on September 10, when they face the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia.

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