The San Francisco 49ers have battled the injury bug throughout the season. It seems like with each passing week, another key member of the NFC West squad is dealing with a significant ailment, including wideout Brandon Aiyuk, who is feared to have suffered a torn ACL in Sunday’s Week 7 loss to Kansas City. Those injury woes reared their head right out of the gate, with Christian McCaffrey being sidelined due to Achilles tendinitis in both legs. However, the franchise is zeroing in on a date when they could get the reigning Offensive Player of the Year back into the fold.
As NFL Media notes on Monday, San Francisco is targeting early November for McCaffrey’s return. Because the organization has a bye in Week 9, the likely return for the star back could be on Nov. 10 when the Niners take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road in Week 10.
The report also notes that McCaffrey has been running on flat ground as he begins ramping up for his return. McCaffrey is eligible to have his practice window opened, but the 49ers have yet to do so. Whenever they do, the club will have 21 days to activate McCaffrey onto the active roster, or else he’ll revert to injured reserve for the rest of the season.
“No new updates other than he’s doing incredibly well,” general manager John Lynch told KNBR last week. “It’s all about the ramp-up, increasing the activity, making sure that there’s no setbacks. I [can] just tell people he’s on a good track with that. No timelines or anything, but he’s doing a little bit more — not each day. We kind of stagger it, work hard one day, kind of go into more of a [regeneration] day the next day. But when you can start to stack those … that’s a good thing, and that’s kind of the direction he’s trending in.”
With the loss to the Chiefs on Sunday, the 49ers have fallen to 3-4 on the season and are in desperate need of some reinforcements, particularly after Aiyuk suffered his injury in the losing effort.
McCaffrey, who led the NFL with a career-high 1,459 rushing yards in 2023, has yet to take a single snap for the team this year. Made the league’s highest-paid running back this offseason, he endured a significant injury history before landing with the 49ers in 2022, missing a combined 23 games from 2020-2021.
Mason has excelled as a runner in McCaffrey’s absence, leading the NFL with 667 yards rushing and three touchdowns through seven games. That said, reinserting a talent like McCaffrey in the near future will do wonders for San Francisco in their hopes to get the 2024 campaign back on track.
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Author: Cody Benjamin
October 21, 2024 | 1:21 pm
