Christian McCaffrey just had one of the best comeback seasons in NFL history, but his coach is already worried about running him into the ground. At the NFL Annual Meeting on Monday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan made it crystal clear that the team needs to find more help in the backfield if they want to stay competitive in 2026.

Last season, McCaffrey put in serious work. The 29-year-old running back carried the ball a career-high 311 times while racking up 1,202 rushing yards and catching 102 passes for another 924 yards. It was a performance that earned him AP Comeback Player of the Year honors after he bounced back from a rough 2024. But here’s the thing: McCaffrey was basically on the field for everything. He played in 83 percent of the team’s offensive snaps, the most since he arrived via midseason trade in 2022.

Shanahan admits that wasn’t really the plan. “We went into the year wanting to take care of him a little bit more”, he said. But once injuries started piling up across the receiver corps, McCaffrey became impossible to bench. The 49ers still managed to rank fifth in the NFL in passing yards per game at 244.5, and Shanahan credits McCaffrey’s ability to open up the passing game for that success. Defenses had to respect his presence on the field, which helped the team’s depleted receiving group put up solid numbers.

The problem is sustainability. McCaffrey’s rushing average dropped to 3.9 yards per attempt last season, down from 5.0 in 2023 when he won Offensive Player of the Year. That decline could be a sign of wear and tear from carrying such a heavy workload.

With Brian Robinson Jr. taking his talents to the Atlanta Falcons as a free agent, the 49ers are counting on younger talent to step up. Jordan James and Isaac Guerendo are currently the backup options, with James showing promise late in the season and Guerendo proving useful in the passing game. Shanahan is optimistic about both, but he’s also realistic about what needs to happen.

“We need some better runners to help Christian”, Shanahan said. “In order for us to be the running team we want to be, and in order to have Christian be as good as he needs to be throughout the year, we got to get him some help”.

The challenge going forward is finding the right balance. Shanahan acknowledged that sometimes he called plays specifically designed for McCaffrey’s skill set, only to have to scramble when McCaffrey got subbed out. That kind of flexibility doesn’t exist with the current backup options, which made it almost impossible to reduce McCaffrey’s snaps even when injuries forced the team’s hand elsewhere.

As the 49ers head into the offseason, it’s clear that adding reliable depth at running back isn’t just nice to have, it’s essential. McCaffrey can’t carry this offense on his back alone, no matter how good he is.