49ers Reacts Survey: Should Christian McCaffrey sit out against the Vikings?

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Christian McCaffrey missed the preseason and training camp dealing with a calf injury, which led to McCaffrey being labeled inactive for Monday’s game following Kyle Shanahan adding the injury is a “calf/Achilles” injury.

Shanahan revealed the injury is similar to the calf injury sustained by McCaffrey in Washington in Week 17. The 49ers clinched the number one spot in the NFC on New Year’s Eve last season, allowing McCaffrey two weeks to prepare for the playoff run. Shanahan spoke to the media on Tuesday and stated that if the game had been a playoff game, McCaffrey would have been active.

The 49ers handled the New York Jets with relative ease on the back of Jordan Mason’s tremendous performance on 28 rushes (the most by any running back during Shanahan’s tenure). While the Jets were hyped as a top team in the NFL, the 49ers didn’t need the reigning Offensive Player of the Year to dismantle the upstart Jets. The team has an embarrassment of riches on offense.

The question is: Should the 49ers push McCaffrey to play on Sunday against Minnesota?

Ian Rapaport of NFL Network called McCaffrey’s chances to play Sunday a “long shot.” Following the short week of traveling to Minnesota and playing surface in Minnesota, it makes sense to hold McCaffrey out. Again, the 49ers can beat the Vikings with Mason, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, and Brandon Aiyuk on offense.

The concern is in the word “Achilles,” which has been described as Achilles tendonitis. The 49ers will need to be careful when bringing McCaffrey back and pay close attention to his recovery and preparation.

Jason Kart of Corept Clinics spoke about the strategies to avoid serious injury that include proper warm-up routines, biomechanical assessments (regular evaluations by physical therapists or sports medicine specialists to identify and correct mechanics before they lead to injury), strength and flexibility training, and rest and recovery.

Dre Greenlaw dealt with Achilles tendonitis and missed the Week 18 game with McCaffrey before his unfortunate Achilles tear in the Super Bowl. It’s hard to speculate if both injuries are similar, but Kart identified degeneration of the tendon and wrote extensively about what led to Greenlaw’s untimely injury.

The Achilles tendon, the strongest and largest tendon in the human body, is designed to withstand significant stress. However, it is also susceptible to degeneration, a condition characterized by the gradual deterioration of the tendon’s fibrous structure. This degeneration often goes unnoticed, as it develops silently over time, exacerbated by repetitive stress and poor biomechanics.

In Greenlaw’s case, the incident on the field was not the cause of his injury but rather the culmination of an ongoing battle within his tendon. It is likely that poor foot and ankle mechanics contributed to uneven distribution of force through the tendon, accelerating its wear and tear. This chronic degeneration weakened the Achilles, setting the stage for the eventual tear from a movement as routine as a warm-up exercise.

Again, there is no evidence the two cases are similar outside of the diagnosis, but the 49ers will be careful with their star running back to avoid catastrophe.

What are your thoughts? Should the 49ers hold out McCaffrey for longer than Sunday? Let us know in the comments.