Christian McCaffrey doesn’t want to talk about turning 30. San Francisco 49ers training camp keeps bringing it up anyway.
McCaffrey hit the milestone birthday on June 7, and the question of running back decline has followed him into Santa Clara. He’s not entertaining it. According to ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, McCaffrey dismissed the outside chatter about running back longevity directly, telling reporters age is just a number and his focus stays on getting better, not counting candles.
“I don’t make a big deal out of the whole age thing,” McCaffrey said, according to ESPN. “That does nothing for me.”
He’s not hedging on what comes next, either. McCaffrey said he has no intention of slowing down as he heads into his 10th NFL season and fifth with San Francisco.
McCaffrey Looks Sharp Through Early Camp Work
Talk is one thing. The tape from Santa Clara backs it up so far.
49ers insider Vic Tafur posted on X that McCaffrey has performed exceptionally well during summer sessions —
Christian McCaffrey has looked great as usual. “He’s running very decisively downhill,” Foerster said. “He’s been no nonsense all camp.”
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) August 5, 2026
Offensive line coach Chris Foerster, who’s been running the show as interim head coach while Kyle Shanahan recovers from a car accident, backed that up in blunt terms.
“He looks really, really good this camp,” Foerster said. “Very decisive this camp, running decisively, running downhill hard, very no-nonsense approach to this season.”
That’s not just coach-speak in August. Camp hasn’t been drama-free — a sideline scuffle last week saw linebacker Dre Greenlaw shove McCaffrey to the ground, and McCaffrey shoved back before it broke up. Nobody on the 49ers wants to see him miss a rep. With no proven depth behind him — Jordan James is out with a broken rib and Isaac Guerendo is dealing with a torn pectoral — McCaffrey is, if anything, more essential to this offense than he’s ever been.
Evans Signing Aimed at Freeing Up McCaffrey’s Legs
The bigger structural fix for McCaffrey’s workload arrived in free agency, when San Francisco signed veteran receiver Mike Evans to a three-year, $42.4 million deal, according to ESPN. It ended Evans’ 12-year run in Tampa Bay and gave Brock Purdy a legitimate outside threat for the first time in years.
The move addresses something specific: McCaffrey got buried by stacked boxes in 2025. San Francisco finished 30th in the NFL in yards per carry last season, the first time a Kyle Shanahan-called offense has ranked outside the top 10 in that category since 2021. Sports Illustrated’s Conor Orr, writing for SI.com, connected that dip directly to how defenses treated McCaffrey, who faced eight-man boxes on nearly 30% of his carries — one of the highest rates in the league.
Evans drew double coverage on 35% of his routes in Tampa Bay last season, sixth-most among receivers league-wide. The idea is simple: if he pulls a safety out of the box to help in coverage, McCaffrey runs into fewer bodies.
Here’s how McCaffrey’s 2025 workload stacks up against the surrounding context:
| Category | 2025 Total | NFL Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Scrimmage yards | 2,126 | 2nd |
| Total touches | 413 | 1st |
| Rushing yards | 1,202 | 8th |
| Yards per carry (team) | 3.9 (49ers 30th) | 30th |
Coming Off a Comeback Player of the Year Season
None of this camp buzz exists in a vacuum. McCaffrey is coming off arguably the best all-around season of his career, one that earned him the 2025 AP Comeback Player of the Year award after he missed 13 games the year before with Achilles and knee injuries.
He started all 17 games in 2025, rushed 311 times for 1,202 yards and 10 touchdowns, and caught 102 passes for 924 yards and seven more scores — 2,126 yards from scrimmage total, second in the league behind only Atlanta’s Bijan Robinson. He became the first player in NFL history to record at least five rushing touchdowns and five receiving touchdowns in the same season.
The volume came with a cost. McCaffrey’s 413 touches set a career high, and his 3.9 yards-per-carry average was his lowest full-season mark since his rookie year. That’s the exact problem the Evans signing is designed to fix — keep the production, lighten the box counts that ground down his efficiency.
San Francisco went 12-5 last season and reached the divisional round before a 41-6 loss to Seattle. With McCaffrey healthy and Evans drawing coverage away from the box, the 49ers are betting their ground game looks more like 2023 than 2025.
