There's one man who doesn't want Christian McCaffrey's touches to be limited. It's Christian McCaffrey. CMC leads the NFL with 119 touches through the first five weeks while fans and media have questioned if the 49ers are overdoing it a bit with McCaffrey especially considering the team has been comfortably ahead in most of their victories.
49ers Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Chris Foerster was asked about McCaffrey's workload vs. pushing the issue because he's so effective.
"We've got other good players and you want to give them those reps so you don't tear your guy down. Now, I say that to Christian, he's like, I'm fine. And he feels he can carry the load and do all that. He does carry the load in third down. That's very important."
Foerster added, "I think you just always have to be careful with anybody that's in harm's way. With running backs, can be receivers, tight ends. You just have to be careful at times to see if you're overdoing it. But if you told Christian that, he'd say, ‘No, I want every touch, every carry, every pass. I want to be out there every snap of the game.’ Oh, it's really tough. Yeah, he doesn't want to come off. I mean, he didn't want to come off after that big hit on Sunday. I think part of that was he wanted everybody to know he was okay because I think the officials were like, ‘Dude might have a concussion or something like that,’ but he's like, ‘No, I'm fine.’ And then we were going like, ‘Well, let's get him out for a play.’ And he says, ‘No, I'm not coming out of the game.’ And because they just did that to me, I'm going to make sure I have a chance to get back at them right now. That was kind of his mentality, I think. So that's Christian, man.”
Foerster laughed when asked if there are any other players on the 49ers team that can refuse to come out of a game saying, "Not many. I coach one that's probably not coming out, he usually does, but there's a couple, but not many. And you trust him. You're like, ‘Hey dude, do you need it? Do you need a rep?’ And he's like, ‘no, no, I'm good.’ And other times you're like, ‘Hey, no, get over here’ and then you have to get him out."
As the 49ers continue to dominate and as McCaffrey continues to lead the way, expect more questions about making sure the 49ers have CMC available and fresh for the biggest games in January and February.
