It doesn't look as if Christian McCaffrey will be hampered by the injury setbacks he suffered over the course of 2024.
There were plenty of reasons why the San Francisco 49ers' 2024 campaign collapsed in epic fashion, leading to a disappointing 6-11 finish.
A key reason was the near season-long absence of All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey to numerous injuries.
The then-reigning Offensive Player of the Year dealt with Achilles tendinitis, which influenced calf issues, too. And those ultimately led to him missing the first half of the season. Then, upon his return midway through the year when the Niners were desperately trying to salvage their playoff hopes, McCaffrey suffered a non-related PCL knee injury in a Week 13 road loss to the Buffalo Bills, effectively ending his season.
San Francisco endured more attrition at running back over the course of the year than it'd like to admit.
Entering his age-29 season, combined with his superhuman 2023 efforts that saw him net 2,023 all-purpose yards, it's safe to worry whether or not McCaffrey is approaching the end of the proverbial line, and last year's injuries are just a sign of things to come.
No, they're not. At least according to the running back.
Christian McCaffrey declares he's 100 percent ahead of 49ers' 2025 season
Speaking to reporters from San Francisco's first day of offseason activities, McCaffrey shed good light on his injury recovery and progress.
In short, he's fully ready to go.
"I'm feeling great," McCaffrey said, via David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone. "It's been such a smooth process, a lot of hard work. As soon as that injury happened in Buffalo, I was kind of—this was my goal, to not miss a day of OTAs, be back, ready to go, with nothing hindering me, and that's where I'm at."
#49ers RB Christian McCaffrey says he has no restrictions from previous injuries and is participating fully in the offseason program.
— Nick Wagoner (@nwagoner) April 22, 2025
Last year's setbacks limited McCaffrey to just four games played with 348 total yards and no touchdowns.
It appears that'll just be an anomaly, nothing else.
"I got to a point pretty early in the offseason when I was training full-speed, ready to go," McCaffrey continued.
The 49ers apparently showed confidence in McCaffrey's ability to bounce back this year by trading away their leading rusher from a season ago, Jordan Mason, to the Minnesota Vikings after the latter admirably filled in for the All-Pro, specifically over the first half of the year.
Hopefully, that'll be the right play with McCaffrey justifying the faith and getting back to his All-Pro kind of ways.