Christian McCaffrey expects to be an important part of the San Francisco 49ers' rebound season after a 6-11 finish last year.
Expectations are sometimes different from reality, especially when McCaffrey is recovering from two separate injuries that sidelined him for 13 games last season.
What the 49ers need is the 2023 version of McCaffrey, who led the league with 1,459 rushing yards and added 14 rushing touchdowns and caught 67 passes for 564 yards with another seven touchdown catches.
But one ESPN analyst thinks that's a long shot and that San Francisco should monitor McCaffrey closely next season.
"A healthy McCaffrey is a wonderful player, as most recently seen in 2023, but the 49ers -- and fantasy managers -- simply cannot count on his attendance," writes ESPN's senior fantasy football writer Eric Karabell. "The 49ers must monitor his workload and hope for the best. This is a bad combination for someone likely to be an early-round draft pick. Perhaps McCaffrey, 29, returns to a high level of performance and carries the 49ers and your fantasy team, but he's been a top-10 RB in only two of the past five seasons."
Teams sometimes work their stars returning from injuries back into the offense slowly. But don't expect that to be the case with McCaffrey. Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said they're not worried about overworking him next season.
Kubiak even continued that the staff doesn't think they have to do anything to protect the eight-year veteran from other injuries on the field next season.
"You're always cognizant of the reps you're putting on guys, especially in practice, when we do that with Christian all the time, we monitor his reps and you have to be smart when you're in games," Kubiak continued. "You have to be cognizant of how much they're out there.