Christian McCaffrey injury adds to 49ers' training-camp headaches

It has not exactly been a smooth training camp so far for the San Francisco 49ers. 

Two of their best players — left tackle Trent Williams and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk — are holding out and holding in respectively over contract demands, while one of them — Aiyuk — has been mentioned in non-stop trade speculation and could be playing for another team before the weekend.

Now another one of their best players, running back Christian McCaffrey, is being shut down for the remainder of the preseason and training camp due to a calf strain. 

Head coach Kyle Shanahan said on Tuesday that McCaffrey will not play at all in the preseason and that the strain is going to keep him from practicing for a couple of weeks.

There are a couple of different ways to look at this.

On one hand, McCaffrey does not really need training camp or preseason action to be ready for the start of the regular season. He also was unlikely to play much in the preseason anyway and saving him a few carries might actually work out in his favor in the long run. At least, it might do that in a perfect world.

On the other hand, however, he is not sitting out in an effort to preserve him. He is out because he is injured, and teams can never be fully sure that an injury like this might not linger for a bit and carry over to when the games actually start to matter.

McCaffrey was the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year during the 2023 season, leading the league with 1,459 yards rushing and adding an additional 564 receiving yards. His 21 total touchdowns and 2,023 yards from scrimmage also both led the NFL. 

As great as he is, he is now into his late 20s and has put a lot of mileage on his body with the workload he has had in both Carolina and San Francisco. Any injury that could potentially linger is a reason for at least some concern.