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49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, the 2023 NFL offensive player of the year, missed the first eight games of the season with an Achilles tendon injury. In three games back, McCaffrey’s production has fallen far short of his part performances.
He has 149 rushing yards, 3.5 yards per carry, 132 receiving yards, and zero touchdowns.
Is he not the guy he had been?
“The speculation on Christian, I think, is a little bit unfair to him,” coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Wednesday. “Christian’s playing very well, he is playing his ass off. But to think a guy who misses an entire offseason is just going to be the exact same the day he gets back would be unfair to any player in the world, I feel like. Guys who miss offseasons and miss training camp, usually it takes them a little bit of time at the beginning of the year to get back into how they were the year before, let alone missing half the season also on top of that. So I think Christian’s doing a hell of a job. But to just think him coming back in Week [10] with not being able to do anything for the last nine months or whatever it is, and to think he’s just going to be in MVP form is a very unrealistic expectation.”
Shanahan nevertheless thinks McCaffrey is getting the job done, despite the not-great numbers.
“I think he looks real good,” Shanahan said. “I think he’s playing very well. I don’t think he’s had a bunch of clean lanes. I think he had a couple versus, when I say a couple, I actually mean two versus Tampa, and if he hits those two which maybe is just half a step off just with seeing it. But you hit those two and it’ll completely change yards-per-carry, which will look better from an outside perspective, but it won’t change anything in actually what’s happening. So to sit here and talk like he’s struggling, not going to do that at all. But for us to be disappointed that he’s not exactly how he was or just right in MVP form, that’d be unfair with any player.”
McCaffrey’s effort to get back to…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kyle-shanahan-unrealistic-expectation-christian-180712837.html
Author : ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-11-28 18:07:00
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