49ers limit CMC?
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00:00Question of the day.
00:01We lay out for you all the things that you now know
00:05about the McCaffrey situation.
00:07What's your game plan for him the rest of the year?
00:10You're gonna hold him out a few more weeks.
00:12Do you want fewer carries no matter what?
00:15Or, dude, turn and burn, let's ride.
00:18When he's ready, let's go.
00:19Let's go right back to Christian the way it was last year.
00:22888-957-9570, we'll wanna play a little bit more
00:25Christian for you.
00:26Okay, bonus McCaffrey.
00:30So he's kinda like what you said, right?
00:32You loved that he said, my mentality.
00:35Mentality, he's ready to go.
00:36I'm gonna play.
00:38Take a listen to this.
00:40You know, I'm not lying.
00:41I think as soon as a player says,
00:43you know, maybe I'll play, maybe I won't,
00:45that's not a good mentality to go into a week with,
00:47you know, when you're kinda on the fence.
00:49So for me, I'm ready to go.
00:51Okay, I don't wanna be on the fence.
00:53That's not a good place to be.
00:55So I'm ready to go.
00:57Yeah, perfect.
00:58And if the doctors agree,
00:59Shanahan for sure would agree with that
01:01because he's one of your best players.
01:02And so he goes out there and he plays.
01:04And I do think if he plays this week,
01:06pitch count is not a real fair thing to look at
01:09because I think he'll be limited in that sphere
01:12in this first game back with no camp.
01:14But beyond that, if he's going to play,
01:17I've got no problem with him going out there
01:19and getting more than 20 touches in a game
01:22if that's the arbitrary number
01:23that people wanna freak out at.
01:25I was looking at his game log for his career
01:27and he's gone over 20 touches in a game.
01:30I think 36 of 94 regular season games.
01:33Oh, is that all?
01:34Yeah.
01:35That's interesting,
01:35because you said last year it was 14 of his 18?
01:38Right, 14 to 20.
01:39And I guess he sat one, so 14 to 19.
01:41Sorry, yeah.
01:42It's about right.
01:43I'm just looking at his log here
01:44and he's only had 17 games
01:47where he's had 20 or more carries.
01:49And then you add in the other games
01:51where usually 17 or 18 carries
01:54and usually three to six catches.
01:56So he's been over 20 about a third of the time.
01:58I don't really have an issue
02:00with using Christian McCaffrey as a bell cow even this year.
02:04I'll tell you the only thing that I saw last year
02:07that I think there were moments that I questioned,
02:11it was Christian in the game
02:13when the Niners were up three scores.
02:15Like that would be another thing
02:17I would sort of add into this.
02:19If you're in the fourth quarter
02:20and you're up by three scores,
02:23hit the showers, dude.
02:25Hit the showers.
02:25You won that game.
02:27I don't even know why Nick Bosa was on the field
02:29against Terod Taylor last week.
02:31The whole starting defense was.
02:34I don't know what that's all about.
02:35I mean, I get that maybe you just don't have
02:38all the players,
02:38but get your stars out of the game
02:40when that thing is cooked.
02:42And when you've got a minute and a half left
02:45and you're up, let's see, what would it have been?
02:4732 to 13?
02:49Nick, go sit down.
02:51That's the only thing that I got with Kyle
02:54as far as decisions with playing time.
02:57How about Jordan Mason?
02:58Similarly, in a game where you don't have McCaffrey,
03:00and right now he's your only real trustworthy running back,
03:04you didn't give Garendo a carry
03:05and Taylor Jr. didn't get a snap.
03:07So you had just him.
03:09You couldn't give Garendo like three or four late ones
03:12just to get him in the flow?
03:13Kyle Shanahan was asked today about Jordan Mason
03:15and handling the big workload.
03:18When I've seen him, he hasn't mentioned anything.
03:19The trainers haven't mentioned anything.
03:21That's what I was kind of explaining on training camp
03:23that I thought was so impressive,
03:24having so many guys out and how hard he went each day
03:26and the way his body really never changed.
03:28So he ran so hard in that game and seems good to go.
03:31See, I wonder if you noticed something subtle there
03:34about the way Kyle answers these questions.
03:38Like, I think we, in our mind,
03:40because we all think they're all like kumbaya
03:42and good friends and everything.
03:44In our mind, we think Kyle is sitting there
03:48talking to guys every day and then on the sideline,
03:51he's going, all right, let's see.
03:53So Jordan's at 19 touches.
03:56I really don't want him to have 20.
03:58That's not the way he thinks.
04:00Kyle's like, Jordan didn't say anything to me.
04:03The doctors didn't say anything to me.
04:06We good.
04:07Go play football.
04:08And honestly, in real time,
04:10I don't even think that it's something
04:11that he is thinking about.
04:13And that's a Bobby Turner call, the running back coach.
04:16And Bobby Turner is gonna be the one primarily
04:18who makes these calls on substitutions.
04:20Now, if McCaffrey plays this Sunday,
04:22there'll be a plan.
04:23Okay, we'll give him the first two or three series.
04:25Then we'll go to Mason for a drive.
04:27And we'll go, you know, for three and one.
04:29Three, one, something like that
04:31where you're gonna split it up.
04:32But in this case, last week, it's Jordan's doing great
04:36and they have no answer for him.
04:38And we haven't seen Garendo yet.
04:39So let's just go ahead and keep feeding him.
04:41And I do think that that's more of a Bobby Turner
04:43running back coach call
04:45than, I don't think Kyle's micromanaging
04:47the substitutions at every position, you know?
04:50By the way, speaking of every position,
04:52Greg Cosell, our guy from NFL Films, is 20 minutes away.
04:56This will be every Wednesday at three o'clock.
04:58And Greg is better than anybody in the business
05:01as far as taking you inside the film,
05:03looking at individuals.
05:05So Jordan Mason and Dominic Pooney and Trent Williams
05:08and Brandon Iyuk will go through all of it
05:10and then also get a little preview
05:12of what's coming up this weekend.
05:14For instance, what did he see on film with Sam Darnold
05:17in his first game back as a starting quarterback?
05:20So we're gonna have all of that coming up in 20 minutes.
05:23We promised McCaffrey's answer about turf.
05:26Okay, you got artificial surface this week.
05:28How does that affect this whole thing?
05:31If you can't run on turf, you can't run on the field.
05:33Can't run on grass, can't run on turf.
05:35If you can go, you can go.
05:37If you can go, you can go.
05:39Yep, yep, I get it.
05:40And that's gotta be the mentality.
05:42You can't go out there in week two and think,
05:44geez, my Achilles, I got this tendinitis,
05:46I can't cut hard on my left
05:48because I don't want the thing to blow
05:49on this artificial surface.
05:51He's gotta have that mentality.
05:53I do think that history and medical people
05:57would tell you that the turf is gonna be more taxing
06:01on the body than the grass.
06:02Sure, but I mean, you can-
06:03Doc Feeley said it perfectly.
06:04Yeah.
06:05Grass is softer.
06:06Yeah, it is.
06:07Which I thought was great.
06:08That's, I've heard.
06:09And you know, but at the same,
06:10you can pop on everything on natural grass too.
06:14For instance, what if,
06:15and I don't even know if these numbers are right,
06:16but let's play with that for a second.
06:19Let's say Christian McCaffrey's like,
06:20yeah, we're good to go.
06:23You're cleared to play.
06:24And doctors are like, 95% chance
06:29everything is totally fine if you go out there and play.
06:33And they go, well, what about on turf?
06:34And then they're like, well, that goes down to 90%.
06:38Is that, what's the gap that makes you go,
06:41I'm not doing it because it's turf.
06:44Because I have to imagine,
06:46as much as it is harder on the body,
06:49does it actually have a huge effect
06:53changing the chances of an injury in one specific game?
06:58I'm not a doctor, but I'd guess no.
07:00I would guess no.
07:02Like if you're, what risk are you taking on turf
07:05that you're not taking on grass?
07:07I would argue that the, like again,
07:09the risk is probably pretty similar.
07:12Depending on the surface
07:13and not every artificial surface has been created equally.
07:18And I was just curious as to what Minnesota has
07:20and they've got UBU Speed Series SSM synthetic turf.
07:25What'd you say to me?
07:26Standard, it's your standard turf.
07:28And I think about New York
07:30and the field that they have at MetLife,
07:32field turf core, that thing is a booby trap.
07:35That thing's a clap trap.
07:36And New Orleans, the surface they play on
07:39is basically concrete.
07:40So every surface is different.
07:42Like the Rams to me, and I haven't actually played on it,
07:46but just from the naked eye,
07:48it looks a little bit more like grass,
07:50like a softer turf than New York, New Orleans, Minnesota.
07:54So all fields are not created equally.
07:56And I'm sure the medical team is looking
07:58at all these angles.
07:59So 888-957-9570, everything you know.
08:02What's your game plan for Christian McCaffrey this year?
08:05We'll be taking your phone calls on this
08:07throughout the afternoon.
08:09The more that I think about it,
08:11look, very few things in life are black and white.
08:15That's just not the way things actually are,
08:17even though we like to think of them that way
08:19because it's easier.
08:21I do think there's a little bit of that here,
08:23at least from Kyle's standpoint.
08:25I do think you almost have to dumb it down.
08:28Kyle's like, look, is he ready?
08:30Is he ready?
08:31Okay, then we're going.
08:33And we're not going to have Kyle Shanahan over there
08:36with a box score.
08:37You know what I mean?
08:38PR's not going to come through after every quarter.
08:41Here's a fresh box score, coach.
08:43Here you go.
08:44He's up to 16 touches, 16 touches.
08:47Oh, and he had to block three times as well.
08:49So, you know, there was some, I mean, you can't do that.
08:53If the guy's ready to go, you got to go.
08:56And I don't look at any of these games
08:59as less important than other games.
09:03They're all important.
09:04They're all losable.
09:06They're all losable.
09:07And I do blend what we're talking about
09:09up against what I've sort of heard from everybody
09:13all off season, all in on this year.
09:17No excuses.
09:20Super Bowl or bust, I don't want to worry about,
09:24why would you worry about next year?
09:26Next year's next year.
09:27Worry about next year, next year.
09:29I'm more worried about January than I am next year.
09:32Okay, he's already gotten a month off
09:35that the rest of the guys didn't get.
09:36Right, and it hasn't necessarily gotten better
09:39to where he can play football.
09:40So for me, you've given him a month off
09:42through camp and preseason and now week one he's sat.
09:45So why all the rush rush?
09:47If he needs a couple, two, three more weeks,
09:49then so be it to where you can get back on grass fields,
09:52which I believe are going to be softer on the body
09:55and it's going to make it a little bit easier for him
09:58to deal with a tendinitis situation.
09:59Yeah, I just don't know that that's
10:04what's actually reality.
10:06You know what I'm saying?
10:06You never know.
10:07Well, of course, but there you go.
10:09You never know.
10:10You never know.
10:11So this idea that I know is out there,
10:14just save him, save him a few more weeks.
10:18What does that do?
10:20And by the way, how would everybody feel
10:23if they had lost Monday?
10:25You'd feel a little bit differently.
10:26Would you?
10:28If Jordan Mason went out and played like a backup
10:29is supposed to, which would be 16 carries
10:33for 51 yards in a fumble.
10:35If he did what he was supposed to do, Mark,
10:37and you lose that game, you're feeling differently
10:40about rushing him back because you know,
10:42teams that start out O and two before expansion,
10:4611% make the playoffs.
10:48Right, but then 49ers, I'm pretty sure checks notes
10:50are not going to start O and two this year.
10:52Correct, yeah.
10:53All right, what if they lose this one?
10:54What if he doesn't play and they lose this one?
10:56Then you may think about more urgency against the Rams.
10:59I personally don't because I look at the long game
11:02of the season and I think we're going to be here
11:05in December and January.
11:06We should be a player in the playoffs.
11:08I'd rather have him be fresh then than, you know,
11:11rush him back now and have him be a little bit more
11:13run down when we get into those big games.
11:15Let's talk about his workload then moving forward.
11:18Doc Feely with us yesterday.
11:20I think when you look at his usage rate last year,
11:23he was 18 to 22 touches a game.
11:25Maybe up to 25, 28 carries for Jordan Mason
11:29was the most Kyle Shanahan player has ever had in a game.
11:32So ideally you have him in the 15 to 20
11:36and I think that's totally reasonable.
11:38I think the other nice thing is as soon as you put him
11:40out there, even if he's not the first, second
11:43or third option, he's a decoy because he's so good.
11:46So I think once he gets out there, he will play.
11:49I think the athletic training staff and the medical staff
11:52is doing everything right.
11:53You take it slow with him now,
11:56especially if you're gonna win a couple of games
11:57with his backup.
11:59It's a long season.
12:00You know, it's hopefully is another season
12:02that goes well into February.
12:04You want him fresh and you want him feeling
12:05as good as possible.
12:06And we know all these players don't feel 100%
12:09by the end of the year.
12:10So you want to conserve him as much as possible
12:12for the second half of the year and into the playoffs.
12:14I see, that's it.
12:15To me, look, he is a doctor,
12:17but that's a funny thought to me, conserving him.
12:20I don't know how you conserve a football player.
12:24You don't play him as much
12:25and you don't give him the ball as often
12:26and thereby he doesn't have as many plays
12:29where he's getting tackled and contacted.
12:31And then in December, he gets a helmet to the knee
12:33and it explodes and that's that.
12:35You just never know though.
12:37You put yourself in the best place to maybe succeed
12:40later in the year and you could look at McCaffrey
12:42last year in the playoffs,
12:43looked like he was slowing down a little bit.
12:46I think so.
12:47What were his numbers?
12:48Do you have them in front of you?
12:49I'll pull them up.
12:49Just looking at touches, last year, 339.
12:52The year before, 329.
12:54Those are his last two seasons.
12:55And the year before, obviously, was a combined year
12:58with what he had done in Carolina.
13:01You got some numbers right here.
13:02Playoffs, he had three games
13:05and he had 89 yards a game in the playoffs
13:09and he had 19 catches in three games,
13:13so six catches, 6.3 catches a game.
13:15He averaged 5.4 yards per carry in the regular season.
13:18He averaged 4.5 yards per carry in the postseason.
13:21So he went down almost a yard per carry,
13:23small sample size.
13:25Yard per target, he was at 6.1 yards per target.
13:29And during the regular year, he was at 6.8.
13:33Yeah, yeah, pretty similar, pretty similar.
13:35And then had a-
13:36And one gigantic fumble,
13:37which I don't know if I would attribute that
13:39to being fatigued, but-
13:41He scored five touchdowns in three games.
13:44I mean, he looked like Christian McCaffrey.
13:46Yeah.
13:47I thought, he looked like Christian McCaffrey.
13:49Well, and again, you're dealing with a player now
13:51who's in his eighth year.
13:53So, you know, there is some wear and tear
13:56that's gone on with McCaffrey and his body.
13:58And I think that it's prudent when you think about
14:01what he did at Stanford and how much he ran there.
14:03And you start to look at all of his carries
14:05from college and the pros.
14:07Now, college carries aren't as rigorous as NFL carries,
14:09but he totaled the ball a lot at Stanford.
14:12No doubt.
14:13In his three years.
14:14So I just, I think about an older player,
14:16you know, older, he's not even 30 yet,
14:17but you know, he's a running back
14:19and it might be prudent to try to limit him early
14:22so you have a better version late.
14:25It's risky.
14:26I hear you.
14:27I feel heard.
14:27Well, I hear you.
14:29I just don't know if it actually does that.
14:31Like maybe that would have been a good question
14:34or we can ask Pandy or Ophelia that next week.
14:38Like, what is the actual payoff of like,
14:41I understand the idea of going easy
14:43when someone's returning or they haven't had camp,
14:46but just in theory,
14:47let's say Christian is totally healthy right now.
14:50Does like chilling with a lower tote rate,
14:53week two, three, four, five,
14:55if you do that, what's the payoff for week 17, 18
15:00and playoff?
15:01Right.
15:02Does that actually equal anything
15:04or are you just praying basically?
15:07I wonder if they've done biometric studies on that.
15:10Dr. Pandya, I think would have a good sense of that.
15:13He occasionally will do these research projects
15:15where he looks stuff up
15:17I'm looking at the total touches from McCaffrey last year,
15:19417, including the post-season.
15:22And I wonder when a player gets to 350
15:26or 400 touches in a year,
15:28if there is a drop-off at that point in productivity.
15:32Part of it is, and I'm going to point this out
15:34that you're playing better teams.
15:36So you're playing good defenses
15:38and you're in the playoffs.
15:39100%.
15:40Detroit, Green Bay and Kansas City
15:42where your three opponents and they're good teams
15:44because they're still playing in the playoffs.
15:47The only time he averaged under four yards of carry
15:49was the Superbowl.
15:50That's it.
15:51And that was easily the best defense
15:53that they played, at least in the post-season.
15:55One of the better defenses in the entire league.
15:5988, 957, 9570.
16:01Can I, I'm not trying to pin you here,
16:04but let me ask you.
16:05I didn't know we were wrestling.
16:06No, I want to understand two answers
16:09because three, four weeks ago,
16:13you sat here and kind of made fun of us.
16:17Oh, big time.
16:18Okay, fine.
16:19You made fun of us.
16:20You and Stiney.
16:21And Guru.
16:22Oh, that's right.
16:23I was meeting him for a while.
16:24You made fun of the whole room
16:26simply because, and I wasn't even arguing against it.
16:29I simply didn't understand the idea
16:32of playing Brock Purdy in the pre-season
16:35with non-teammates, second stringers, whatever.
16:41All the other first stringers were sitting.
16:43And he played Brock Purdy.
16:44I thought it was a head scratcher.
16:45Now, your thought was, hey, you know,
16:50Foofy Four, let's go.
16:52They're football players.
16:54Yeah, he's healthy.
16:55You play.
16:56When you're healthy, yeah.
16:57But what if Christian is healthy?
16:59He's saying he's healthy.
17:01Then you play him.
17:02I personally don't think that he is, quote, healthy.
17:06Brock Purdy was 100% healthy
17:07and he wanted to get some reps, so you play him.
17:10And you played him behind twos and threes
17:13and you trusted him to stay safe and he did.
17:14Christian McCaffrey is clearly not healthy.
17:17He couldn't play in pre-season games
17:20and he was unable to go in week one.
17:22So for me, it's apples and oranges.
17:24If McCaffrey is healthy and the doctors say,
17:27yeah, he's healthy enough to play, play him.
17:29I'll be holding my breath because he's pretty important.
17:32I mean, I'd do that anyway.
17:34Yeah.
17:35I mean, that's part of every NFL season.
17:37I did it the other night when Debo went on that end around
17:41and got flipped up, got hit hard in the leg
17:43and he threw the ball up in the air
17:45and then he just kind of sat.
17:46And there was a Jet player that got hurt.
17:47I think it was the one who hit him.
17:49Yeah, that was on our side of the stadium.
17:51I was looking right at Debo.
17:52He took a knee.
17:53And he just sat there.
17:54Just sat there.
17:54He wasn't laying down, but he just sat there.
17:57And the crowd started chanting his name.
17:58I was holding my breath.
18:00Like, there's at least one of those every game, isn't there?
18:03Playoffs against Minnesota, the first Super Bowl year,
18:07whatever that was, four or five years ago.
18:10Bosa goes down.
18:11Crowd starts chanting his name.
18:13Eventually, he gets up, runs off the field.
18:15Place goes nuts.
18:16But yeah, we're gonna have those.
18:18We're gonna have that.
18:19It happened with Christian.
18:20It happened with Trent.
18:21Happens with Debo.
18:22It feels like four times a year.
18:24George in the Super Bowl.
18:25Drake Greenlaw in the Super Bowl.
18:27I mean.
18:28You didn't have any chance to hold your breath on that one.
18:30It was just out of breath immediately.
18:31Right, and that was one where the turf field at practice
18:35was kind of aggravating his Achilles and then it just went.
18:38I'm not saying you, if a guy's got an Achilles that hurts,
18:41you never play him, but if he's healthy and he gets cleared,
18:44play him, but you're not gonna give him 25 touches.
18:47I would rather them not play him against Minnesota.
18:51See about the Rams.
18:52If you're 2-0, maybe you get the Ram game too
18:55and we'll see you on grass, bro.
18:57Yeah.
18:58You can play on the grass.
18:59Go ahead and keep that.
19:00Yeah.
19:01Go ahead and keep that.
19:02Mac T.
19:03Grandy didn't like it.
19:04In the U is on Willard and Dibs.
19:06Mac T, what's up?
19:07What are you doing?
19:09Hey, what's up, guys?
19:10Yeah, I think you have to be gratuitously conservative
19:13with CMC.
19:15The research and everything shows
19:18that when running backs turn 28,
19:22they just deteriorate really badly.
19:24I believe that's his age.
19:25The other thing that's not really been mentioned
19:27is like you were talking about the touches.
19:29If he's a starting running back,
19:31what about all the times he has to block
19:32and he has to hit an NFL linebacker?
19:35That takes mileage off as well.
19:37Additionally, his dad had him running sleds
19:40when he was like five years old.
19:42He has these crazy workout routines, which is awesome,
19:44but for somebody that's 28,
19:46I think his mileage is probably like 150,000 miles.
19:48So I think you just have to really, really, really
19:50be conservative more so than you would think.
19:52Yeah, see, I don't agree with that.
19:54Mac T., thank you very much.
19:55I get where you're coming from.
19:56Sleds at five, I like it.
19:58I like the parenting.
19:59Okay, two things.
20:00Right, like Christian McCaffrey is 28.
20:02That means he's about to slow down.
20:04I would argue Christian's different.
20:06I think we've already seen it.
20:07Not only is he more talented,
20:09I think he's in better shape than the next guy.
20:11I don't expect Christian McCaffrey to fall off of a cliff
20:14just because he's 28.
20:16We have seen exceptions.
20:17Every running back's different.
20:19Sometimes it's 30, sometimes it's 32.
20:22Curtis Martin, other guys, it's 25.
20:25You know what I mean?
20:26You see guys fall off the cliff at different times.
20:28Now the idea, though, of mileage,
20:31like, do you have a car?
20:34You have a car?
20:35Got a Honda Fit.
20:35Okay.
20:36130,000 miles on it.
20:38Do you drive it?
20:39Yeah, it doesn't run like it used to.
20:40Okay, but do you drive it?
20:42It's still pretty good, of course.
20:43Okay, are you like, oh, it's got 130,000 miles on it.
20:45I should stop driving it so that three years from now,
20:48I can still drive it.
20:49The whole point of having a player in his prime
20:53is to use him.
20:55Like, I'd argue, this is what's amazing.
20:58If Christian's about to fall off a cliff physically,
21:01use him more.
21:03Use him more.
21:05That sounds mean-spirited.
21:06Well, no.
21:06Like, get every last drop out of his prime.
21:10I'm with you, but-
21:11If he's about to go down,
21:12then let's have his usage go down
21:14when he's not as good in two years.
21:16Well, then let's just use him in December and January.
21:19That's my argument, is yes,
21:21if you think that he's starting to deteriorate,
21:24and there's no evidence to that fact yet,
21:26but you look at his overall touches since Stanford,
21:29and he's over 2,500 touches,
21:31so it's not about the years and the age.
21:35For me, it's about the touches,
21:36and 2,500, I wonder what the line is
21:39for some of the greats where their total touches,
21:42when they reached a number of those,
21:44that they started to fall off.
21:46It's not about how old you are.
21:47It's about how much you've done already.
21:49Well, but he's already surpassed
21:51so many running backs as far as that.
21:53Like, how many running backs
21:54even get this opportunity anymore in the NFL?
21:57So if that's the case, we have to turn the faucet off now.
22:01You don't have to turn the faucet off,
22:03but save water for December.
22:04That's all I'm saying.
22:05I just don't know if it works.
22:07Where's the data that that works?
22:09You know what I mean?
22:10Like, the only team I can think of in pro sports
22:13to try to do anything like that
22:14was the Nationals with Steven Strasburg,
22:17where there was this idea of like,
22:18yeah, we had a certain number,
22:20and you know what I mean?
22:22Like, when it's over, it's over,
22:23and so we gotta try to like, slow play this.
22:26I just don't know if saving him actually helps
22:30in any sort of a significant percentage kind of a way.