00:00and i wonder if you'll duck this because uh you and i've had this conversation hell i i mean who
00:07hasn't um in fact it was a few years ago uh that you and i had this hot debate over who was the
00:15most important 49er on the offense to stay on the field and you kind of took mccaffrey i took purdy
00:22because i think that the quarterback is the quarterback and uh we've seen both happen and
00:27you could argue that that both have cratered the 49er offense when they're not there
00:31um but but here's why i bring it up so there's a station in san diego called me a couple hours
00:37ago has hey come on and talk some niners with us no problem so we call it we go we do a little
00:42segment about the 49ers and he the host who i know well says to me um that uh and actually you know
00:49the guy he's referring to another host who used to work down there in san diego and has been doing
00:54media in california forever ever ever it goes by the name of steve hartman maybe yeah yeah maybe
00:59you've heard of him maybe you haven't we hear him on the weekends uh on our very air and he's a big
01:04la guy san diego guy whatever too bad he's got all that stink all over him but anyway it's no big deal
01:09but steve i guess had gone on this show the week before and had said the niners are gonna suck
01:14the niners are gonna suck this year and i said well before you tell me that steve just said the
01:19niners are gonna suck tell me why what was his point and he goes well the first thing he said was
01:26if christian mccaffrey gets hurt and i said stop right there first of all you started your statement
01:31with an if therefore that is not reality and 82 percent of what we worry about never happens right
01:39so i'd also then rally back with this do you know how many players in the nfl if we did that
01:46if blank gets hurt right well then that team's going to be in trouble how how we doing if this
01:54matt stafford back thing doesn't get any better rams still scare you i mean probably not as much
02:02like mahomes in kansas city josh allen in buffalo lamar in baltimore we can play this game with any
02:08team and any one player and it's not even just football this market sat here and watched the golden
02:13state warriors have a one nothing lead in round two on the road and then steph curry left season
02:18over period and goodbye that's the way sports works and you got to be able to handle that my question
02:23to you though is all right those of you who are worried about christian mccaffrey's injury what do
02:29you want the niners to do about that do you believe that they can put their hands on this in some sort of
02:34away and help him prevent injury would you like the 49ers to lessen his carries this year
02:41or do you just want to hope you just want to play football and hope because he could carry the ball
02:49once and get hurt he could carry it one time and get hurt or he could carry it 300 times and not get
02:57hurt so i i really kind of i'm not going to say i like i split the difference here but but i really
03:04do believe yes you should obviously have some thought about not overworking christian mccaffrey
03:12for all kinds of reasons largely just to have him fresh in the playoffs for example but i don't think
03:18that you can play scared so what is it that you want the niners to do about this rampant fear that
03:25christian mccaffrey is made of glass and is going to go down at any given moment if they actually put
03:30him on a football field and let him touch the football don't play him until the playoffs okay
03:34i mean that's an idea that is an idea but the real solution is there is no solution because two years
03:41ago you didn't bubble wrap him even though fans wanted him bubble wrapped and he played all the way
03:47through the super bowl i don't think he fumbled in the super bowl because he was just dog tired and
03:52you know you used him too much and so when you needed him to make a play he didn't that to me
03:56is nonsense and so you look at how do you want them to handle him i do think there's some sensibility of
04:03all right you're up uh 28 to 9 and you get the ball back with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter
04:10you don't need to have him out there to salt away the game when you're up 28 to 9 that's fine
04:14shanahan tends to want to still do that because he understands three and out they score
04:20uh onside kick they get it they score now we gotta what get him out of his jacket and put him
04:26back out there right that's real but i think that there's a certain amount of protection that you can
04:32build into a guy who is getting closer to 30 and somebody who has had seasons derailed by injury i
04:38mean i'll tell you this right now and if you were with us yesterday uh my son was doing a way too early
04:44fantasy football draft down in orange county with his cousin yeah and one of the things we wanted to
04:48ask him was hey when did christian mccaffrey go in your fantasy draft and i had everybody in the
04:54room guess and there were you guessed fourth and somebody guessed fifth and somebody guessed eighth
04:59and the answer was 16 now largely a a draft made up of not 49er fans so maybe that affects it but here
05:09would be my prediction boy you all just totally messed up holy hell you picked 15 people in your fantasy
05:18draft ahead of christian mccaffrey you're nuts you're nuts because i would argue and maybe this
05:25goes against popular thought you have no evidence that he's going to get hurt this year you have no
05:32evidence that he's hurt right now in fact you have reporters all over the place saying stuff like this
05:38if i had to tell you who out of all 90 guys has looked the most impressive on the practice field
05:45so far through a week slam dunk christian mccaffrey i've seen christian mccaffrey working at full speed
05:51for several practices and i was joking at first on day one i'm not joking anymore i think he might
05:57have gained step and over 2024 for sure i don't comparing it to 2023 is going to be tough but consider
06:04the fact that his body probably relatively fresh now compared to where it was in 2023 coming off of
06:10the long 22 run as well i wouldn't surprise me if christian mccaffrey is moving just a little bit
06:15quicker than he was in that sensational 2023 season he looks like he's added a little bit of muscle not
06:22like an alarming amount but to where it would slow him down but probably just to be able to absorb some
06:26of the physical punishment that comes over the course of the season and i can tell you for sure
06:31that christian is extremely motivated and extremely locked and i know that he pays attention to some
06:37of the noise out there and i know that he uses it as fuel and he made a couple awesome catches the
06:42other day i think he's running really well and i think that he looks absolutely great out on that
06:46football field that was david lombardi on our show last week with regard to christian mccaffrey so
06:53if that's reality if that's what is happening right now i don't know why why are we so worried about
07:02the ifs buts and whatever the hell happened last year you're worried because he has had a history of
07:08of injuries that have ended seasons and so it's a reality and last year was kind of the most curious
07:14one where i'm looking at it here he didn't play until week nine because he had the bilateral achilles
07:21tendonitis and you and i were revved up down there for the pregame in the opener against the jets and
07:26we couldn't wait to see him and about two hours before kick the word came in it might have been
07:30a shefter it was some sort of a breaking news alert it's like oh he's not playing it's like what he's
07:36not playing and he didn't play again until november 10th at tampa and he played one two three and a
07:43half games and then he fell awkwardly and his knee blew up and season over so i think that the fear
07:49is real and it is you know not out of the ordinary to think that it could happen again but
07:56if he is this healthy if he is looking this good in camp then i'm all in on christian mccaffrey
08:02you
Comments