Christian McCaffrey Set To Make San Francisco 49ers Debut On Sunday

Three days after he was acquired by the San Francisco 49ers, All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey will make his debut with the team.

NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport was the first to report Saturday evening that McCaffrey will be on the field for San Francisco’s Week 7 outing against the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

It was not known whether McCaffrey would debut in Week 7 over wait until San Francisco took on the defending champion Los Angeles Rams in Southern California next Sunday.

Apparently, San Francisco’s brass heeded his call to play in front of the running back’s new home crowd on Sunday. McCaffrey had been campaigning to play despite not getting a full practice in with the 49ers following the trade being made official Thursday night.

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How The San Francisco 49ers Plan To Use Christian McCaffrey On Sunday

The 49ers have a package of plays planned for McCaffrey in his debut, sources confirmed. It remains to be seen exactly how many plays McCaffrey will be on the field. But it’s not expected to top 25 or 30.

The fact that McCaffrey has not had a ton of time to learn San Francisco’s playbook complicates things a bit further. But he’s a veteran with a wealth of experience in outside zone-blocking schemes. That should make this a fluid transition from Carolina.

Right now, Jeff Wilson will start and be the featured back in a game San Francisco must win to avoid an ugly 3-4 start to the season. As for McCaffrey, he’s more than excited to be returning him to the Bay Area.

“I’m extremely fired up. Obviously I have a little bit of a history with coach Shanahan. I can’t express how happy I am to be here,” Christian McCaffrey after blockbuster trade was announced.

McCaffrey’s father, Ed, played under Shanahan’s father, Mike, with the Denver Broncos from 1995-2003. The older McCaffrey was also a member of the 49ers’ Super Bowl winning team when Shanahan was the offensive coordinator back in 1994. As for Kyle Shanahan, he actually babysat McCaffrey when the running back was a youngster.

The Bay Area ties do not end there. McCaffrey starred for Stanford from 2014-16, finishing second in the Heisman voting as a sophomore in 2015.

McCaffrey, 26, heads to the 49ers after having put up 670 total yards and three touchdowns in six games with the Panthers. From 2018-19, he recorded a combined 4,357 yards with 43 touchdowns while catching a resounding 223 passes.

He appears to be back at pre-injury form after playing in a combined 10 games over the previous two seasons.

San Francisco is banking on that after exhausting four draft picks to acquire the high-priced running back from Carolina. Despite a minimal cap hit this season, McCaffrey will count $12 million against the cap in 2023 and 2024 before that number rises to $12.2 million in 2025.

San Francisco knows full well that McCaffrey is going to be a big part of its future moving forward.

“This is not a rental. So that was something that you think about in this time. And that was something that, at least for me and definitely John (Lynch), that was so much more enticing, knowing if we got him, just contractually and stuff, he’s going to be here. We don’t have to be risking this come February,” Shanahan said after the McCaffrey trade became official.

That starts Sunday against Kansas City in a rematch of Super Bowl LIV from back in February of 2020.