Niners Nation on Christian McCaffrey

ArticleJohn Lynch underlines ‘heightened focus’ on area where 49ers struggled in 2025
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From the article

Much will depend on the level of explosion Christian McCaffrey has in his legs after a 2025 season in which he averaged 3.9 yards per carry, his worst performance in that area since 2020, and had only three rushes of 20 yards or more.

STACKED’s take

Negative signalProjection

McCaffrey's 3.9 YPC and three 20-yard rushes signal declining run explosiveness.

McCaffrey's 2025 performance raised concerns about his explosiveness going forward; he averaged 3.9 yards per carry (his worst since 2020) and had only three rushes of 20+ yards, both metrics critical to the 49ers' goal of improving their explosive run game (they ranked 26th in explosive run rate at 6.03%, far behind Baltimore's league-leading 11.05%). Additionally, McCaffrey averaged just 2.3 yards before contact last season, below the league average of 2.5, indicating offensive line struggles that will need to improve for him to regain explosiveness.

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