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00:00I respect the 49er team doctors, I respect Kyle Shanahan, I respect Christian McCaffrey.
00:07Obviously, this is their decision to make.
00:09I have no idea how his leg actually feels.
00:13I don't know how you're supposed to treat Achilles tendonitis, but we're going to lay
00:19out for all of you, we're going to lay out the information that we have that's up to
00:24the minute.
00:25Some of that is from doctors, some of it is from Kyle, some of it is from Christian, and
00:30then we're going to lay it out to you at 888-957-9570 and simply ask, based on all the info you
00:38have, what would you do?
00:42What is your game plan now, this year, for Christian McCaffrey, based on what we know
00:49in this moment?
00:50So you want to hear some things?
00:52Let's do it.
00:54Let's dive in.
00:55Here's Kyle Shanahan with his latest general update on Christian McCaffrey.
01:01Christian is still limited and not just out.
01:04I'm not a doctor, but I would read that as a positive sign for how he feels.
01:08I'm not a doctor either, but I take that as positive.
01:10Do you agree?
01:11Yes, I do agree, but I'm not a doctor.
01:14Okay, so Kyle Shanahan and Matt Maioco are lockstep dibs.
01:18Right.
01:19He's limited, he's not out, he's limited, so he's at practice, don't know exactly what
01:23he did, but he was out there running around.
01:25That's good news.
01:26All right.
01:27Will Christian McCaffrey, has there been any thought to going on IR?
01:30No, I've never considered that.
01:32I considered him to play last week, so definitely not thinking about four weeks off.
01:35Okay.
01:36So throw that out.
01:37We're not thinking about a month from now.
01:39There's more optimism than that.
01:41Here's what Christian had to say with regard to his current state.
01:46On Monday morning, just moving around a little bit, I prepare every week to play, my mindset
01:50every week is I'm going to play.
01:52There's been weeks where I'll go the full week, not even feeling good enough to do the
01:55walkthrough and then I wake up and body's capable of a lot of cool things and mentally
02:01I'm always prepared to play and then woke up and it was a group decision, very tough
02:05one.
02:06I hate not playing, but look at it as a chess move and something that hopefully we can benefit
02:11from the rest of the season.
02:13Okay.
02:14Doc Feely was on with us yesterday, cleared to play and we pretty much talked to him solely
02:20about Christian McCaffrey because this is such a big deal.
02:26First of all, this is what Doc Feely had to say about the term Achilles tendonitis.
02:32In many ways, the calf strain is going to be just as bad if not worse than the Achilles
02:37tendonitis.
02:38It really just depends on the severity of the tendonitis.
02:40All it really means is there's inflammation along the tendon, which as a 28 to 30 year
02:46old running back with a lot of mileage, it's kind of expected he's going to get that at
02:51some point during his career, if not this year, next year, so I don't think it's the
02:55big deal.
02:56He's going to get a lot of treatment for it.
02:58I think it's important for him to be able to limit his reps during the season.
03:01I think we've seen that in the last couple of years.
03:03He's somebody that does a great job at a certain number of reps and then if we have a suitable
03:08backup, that's even better.
03:11Okay.
03:12You asked him about the surface for this week's game.
03:16Okay.
03:17This is true for next week's game too.
03:20Artificial surface.
03:22How does that affect this decision making process?
03:25The lower extremity injury rate is higher on turf than it is on grass and if I'm playing
03:33on turf next week early in the season, I'm probably going to be a little bit extra conservative
03:38because I think it is a little bit riskier and it hurts a little bit more.
03:41Grass is softer.
03:42Okay.
03:43Let's talk Feeley and then we have one more that we want to throw at you and it comes
03:47from The Morning Roast who I thought had a phenomenal conversation with Brian Baldinger
03:51this morning.
03:52Went all over the place and a lot of positivity on the defensive and offensive line.
03:59My God, I think Baldy wants to maybe go away on a vacation with Dominic Pooney.
04:04Like he loves him that much.
04:05He wants to travel with him now.
04:07Okay.
04:08I thought this was a really interesting comment.
04:12The Jordan Mason excitement has people thinking, hey, be patient.
04:17Like the Niners can still be at a really high level without CMC.
04:20Baldy kind of threw some water on that.
04:22But you can't play at the same level without Christian McCaffrey.
04:25Credit Jordan Mason and everything else on Monday night.
04:28But you're not going to play at the same level without him.
04:30He's just too much of a force for Kyle Shanahan to move around and put in different positions
04:36and exploit matchups in the passing game.
04:39You know, he has this history now and I'm the biggest Christian McCaffrey fan there
04:43is.
04:44But he has this history.
04:45He had 400 touches one year in Carolina and he was banged up for much of the next two
04:49seasons.
04:50All right.
04:51So that is all on the table for you.
04:54Not thinking about IR.
04:56He participated in practice today.
04:59Though limited, it's only Wednesday.
05:02The start of the practice week, Christian participated.
05:06You heard what Doc Feeley said about turf, about limiting reps.
05:09You heard what Brian Voldinger said about how the 49ers cannot be the full 49ers without
05:14Christian McCaffrey.
05:15So, Dibbs, all of that is on the table and we put it out to you callers 888-957-9570.
05:22Our question of the day.
05:23With all of that in place, what is your game plan for Christian this year?
05:29For this week in particular, he doesn't play.
05:31And for the year, I am not going to rush him back until he is.
05:36And again, 100% is such a nebulous thing to say because nobody's ever 100%.
05:41I know me now in my mid-50s, I haven't been 100% for probably two decades.
05:45So McCaffrey, late in his NFL life, is he ever 100%?
05:49No.
05:50I would wait until he feels either no pain, no tendinitis, no calf strain, nothing like
05:57that.
05:58Back-to-back turf games could be a recipe for, not disaster, that's too dramatic, but
06:03for re-injury or for more additional soreness.
06:07So if I could take two turf games and make it one turf game, maybe even zero turf games,
06:12I would not play him on Sunday.
06:14I would look to the RAM game, divisional game, more important in the grand scheme as the
06:19place where I would think about having him have a debut.
06:22Okay.
06:23Couple questions based on what you're saying.
06:24A little bit of a devil's advocate here.
06:26You want him to feel all the way better before you play him.
06:29What if he never feels all the way better?
06:31Then you get to a point where you have to go out there and give it a shot anyway.
06:34And if he's not getting worse, if he's going to stay at this number, and I don't know what
06:38the number is, Kyle Shanahan saying IR is not on the table.
06:42So that tells me that it's not too, too severe.
06:45I know we've talked a lot about Doc Chow, who was an NFL doctor to the stars and a guy
06:50who's on social media.
06:51And he mentioned that severe Achilles tendonitis can lead to a rupture.
06:57So if this was, and I don't, I'm not a doctor, I haven't seen the scan.
07:01But for me, if this was a severe case of tendonitis, then you wouldn't even be talking about him
07:07potentially playing this week.
07:08So I do think the tendonitis is something that probably can be maintained or contained
07:14with a little bit more rest.
07:16So I would try rest first before rushing back.
07:19Okay, again, 888-957-9570.
07:23With all that you now know, what is your game plan this year for Christian McCaffrey?
07:28I see someone on the YouTube chat who literally just said, and it's Jay Passer.
07:33Thank you for listening.
07:35I agree, Dibbs.
07:37Play him when he's ready to play.
07:39Next man up, all right?
07:41Again, devil's advocate.
07:42Yeah.
07:43He says he's ready to play right now.
07:45He does, yeah.
07:46So what does that mean, play him when he's ready to play?
07:49Well, it comes to the doctors, the medical, exactly.
07:52Really the doctors.
07:53Because Christian McCaffrey, and we talked about this in the crossover, his mindset is
07:58that he's going to play.
07:59Thank God that's his mindset.
08:01Because you want football players to be of a mindset that they're going to play.
08:05If the medical shows that he's not fully able to do everything he needs to do, you can wait.
08:11You can wait until week three or four, five, whatever week that is where he actually is
08:16not showing these ill effects of an injury, then you can play him.
08:21And it's, I know it's hard to, you can't quantify it.
08:24And the other side of it is you have a player who is desperate to play.
08:29The dude wants to play football.
08:30It's what he does.
08:31And I would bet that the coach is in his office thinking, man, I sure would love to have Christian
08:36McCaffrey.
08:37That'd be good.
08:39What Baldy was saying, like having him on the field opens up so many things for so many
08:44other people.
08:45Just the gravity of McCaffrey in the past game.
08:48You don't have that yet with Jordan Mason.
08:49No, the Niners with McCaffrey, it's like the age old dazed and confused question.
08:54You know what I mean?
08:55Totally.
08:56Like, dude, you got any?
08:57No, I don't.
08:58Sorry, man.
08:59It'd be a lot cooler if you did.
09:01Hey, Niners, you got McCaffrey in there?
09:03You don't?
09:04Man, it'd be a lot cooler if you did.
09:07Yeah.
09:08It'd be a lot cooler with Christian McCaffrey.
09:12And I just go back and forth with that idea of how can you protect a football player when
09:22he's playing football, especially a running back?
09:25I just don't think you can.
09:27Now, I'm not flippant about this.
09:29No.
09:30If the guy's got pain in his Achilles and I'm with you and a doctor says no go, obviously
09:37that's a no go.
09:39But I am going to, like, my game plan would be this.
09:44I am going to lean back on the name of our segment with Dr. Pandya and Dr. Feeley, cleared
09:51to play.
09:53And when he is cleared to play, he plays.
09:58But my only caveat would be this, and it actually has nothing to do with Achilles tendonitis.
10:04I want Jordan Mason to get five to seven carries anyway.
10:08I thought that three weeks ago.
10:10I thought that five weeks ago.
10:13I like Jordan Mason.
10:14I've always liked Jordan Mason.
10:16And now that everybody got a little taste, everybody dipped their toe into the water
10:22there with Jordan Mason, now we all feel differently about him.
10:27The curiosity we had has now been answered.
10:29Yeah, he can play.
10:31He can be a running back.
10:33And he's not going to hurt your team.
10:34He can take a drive here or there, an entire drive.
10:37Yeah, more than just a series.
10:38So to me, I'm going to reserve the big touches game for Christian McCaffrey.
10:47I'm going to do that in emergency break glass when necessary.
10:51Are we tied in the fourth quarter against the Cowboys?
10:54Is this a playoff game?
10:56What have you?
10:57But my game plan, my thought going into every game for the rest of the year, if you're cleared
11:02to play, you play.
11:03But I am going to try to, I'm going to try to avoid 20 to 25 or 30 touch games whenever
11:13possible.
11:14And that's less really about Christian's leg, and it's more about just keeping Jordan involved
11:19also.
11:20And I think that's a good game plan.
11:21When I look at the history of Christian McCaffrey, and I'm looking just at his regular season
11:26game log, and he's played in 91 of them, and there aren't a ton of games where he has more
11:30than 20 carries.
11:32Now he will get, you know, four to 10 catches in the game, depending on how the offensive
11:36flow is going.
11:37But I do think no matter when you play him for the first time, you're going to slow play
11:43his touches.
11:44You saw it with Iuke.
11:45He didn't play a full rack of snaps as a receiver because he's getting back into shape.
11:50So if McCaffrey does play Sunday, you fantasy owners, you're going to have to probably grin
11:55and bear it because I don't think that he will get more than 15 carries or 15 touches
12:01in this first game back.
12:02You wouldn't think.
12:03I'd be surprised.
12:04I mean, people get eased in.
12:05If you're not up to snuff in the preseason, and your name's not Trent Williams, you get
12:11eased in.
12:12Now, every position is different, right?
12:13Iuke is a complementary type of a piece that needs to have a vibe with Brock Purdy.
12:19Christian McCaffrey's a little bit different.
12:20Here's the ball, go run.
12:21It's kind of like why rookie running backs usually can get up to speed quicker than rookie-wide
12:26receivers.
12:27So maybe that's different.
12:28But you're probably right.
12:29You'll probably ease into it.
12:30The question we're asking, with all we know, what is your Christian McCaffrey game plan
12:36now this year?
12:38888-957-9570.
12:39Let's go to Dave in Fresno.
12:43First up.
12:44Hi, Dave.
12:45Thanks for calling.
12:46Thanks for taking my call.
12:47I'd like to do my best to answer the question, and if I'm Shanahan, and I'm the 49ers, and
12:54this is even with the 100% McCaffrey, even before the injury, I just think we need more
12:59of a community approach.
13:01I think we could have used that last year.
13:04Like you said, Willard, a lot of people have been fans of Mason.
13:08We just wanted to see more.
13:10You know, correct me if I'm wrong, but we were dead last in practice since last year.
13:14So I would say the running game is a pretty important part of this offense.
13:18So I mean, you look at games last year where they played the Cardinals, and they were trying
13:24to get in the record.
13:25They were up 15 points, and he's still back there.
13:27I think we need to avoid those situations.
13:29Even if it's Mason, who's the bell cow, I'm not comfortable seeing any running back get
13:3528 carries, especially when the game's kind of out of reach.
13:38You know, I just think we need to be more mindful if Garindo's not healthy or not the
13:43option, we need to get a third guy this time, and it even goes to Debo.
13:47You know, avoiding those handles up the middle with Debo, these are risky plays.
13:53I know it's football.
13:54You can get hurt any time during the game, but Shanahan, you know, you're a great play
13:58caller, but just got to time and place some of these play calls with these players, and
14:04you guys already kind of spoke to it.
14:08We need to have more variety, have a plan for Mason too when McCaffrey comes back, which
14:14I think is pretty obvious.
14:15And I know Shanahan, he likes when the hot hand is going, he likes to stay with it, you
14:20know?
14:21But my point, Will, is let's save that for the big game, for the playoffs.
14:25You know, that'd be the smart thing to do, but again, I just think more of a committee
14:30approach because people are saying this often, any running back, you know, can be effective.
14:35So let's see that theory, let's put it to the test.
14:38Well, Dave, thank you so much.
14:41It's a good call, but it's also a fine line, what we're talking about here.
14:45It is.
14:46You know what I mean?
14:47Like, I'm going to also acknowledge, like, I really like Jordan Mason, and I want Christian
14:50McCaffrey healthy, but you're also right, like you cannot protect a player playing football.
14:55And Kyle Shanahan would be a moron, quite frankly, to not use a healthy Christian McCaffrey
15:01as much as he possibly can.
15:03He's phenomenal.
15:05And you want him out there as much as possible.
15:08It's a big draw, you know, like, here's the other thing, and I agree with Stiney was kind
15:13of indicating this.
15:14I agree with him.
15:15I don't think football coaches do what we fans do, which is, dude, you're playing Minnesota.
15:22It's fine.
15:23You don't need your best players.
15:25Coaches don't think that way.
15:27And they're right.
15:28We're wrong.
15:29Exactly.
15:30It's why survivor pools are so hard.
15:31All this crap about, oh, you can beat that, but they're an NFL team.
15:35And they won last week.
15:36I know they played the Giants, but maybe they're really good.
15:38I don't know.
15:39Yeah.
15:40I don't.
15:41You know what I mean?
15:42Like, it's week one.
15:43Well, they're going to treat Minnesota like they're really good because you have to.
15:45You can't look past anybody in the NFL because ultimately one bounce of the football or one
15:50miss block, as we saw in the Super Bowl last year, things can change in a heartbeat in
15:55any game.
15:56So this is not when you're a college juggernaut going up against an FCS team that was winless
16:01the year before and you're going to win by 70.