It’s been a struggle for Christian McCaffrey this season running the ball, but he is on pace for an historic season as a pass-catcher.
McCaffrey’s talents in the receiving game have been critical to the success of the 49er passing attack amid a rash of injuries at receiver. He leads the 49ers in receiving yards with 387 and also has three receiving touchdowns to his name.
If the sustains his yards per game average of 77.4, McCaffrey will shatter the record for receiving yards by a running back in a single season, which is held by Don Shofner (1,097 in 1958).
McCaffrey is on pace to end the year with over 1,300 yards receiving. With the likes of Jauan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall, George Kittle and, eventually, Brandon Aiyuk to come back into the lineup it seems unlikely McCaffrey will get the usage required to sustain that pace.
We’re still a long way from knowing whether McCaffrey will break that record, but an NFL first beckons for him this Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
McCaffrey has at least 50 receiving yards in every game this season. Should he continue that streak, he will become the first running back in NFL history with at least 50 receiving yards in the first six games of a season.
In addition, if McCaffrey records 50 receiving yards and 50 rushing yards against Tampa Bay, he will join Marshall Faulk as only the second running back to record those numbers in five of the first six games of a campaign.
Averaging just 3.1 yards per carry, McCaffrey will be desperate to improve his rushing production. However, his play as a pass-catcher is helping the 49ers stay on schedule despite their running game issues. Targeted at least seven times in every game so far this season, McCaffrey will be expecting Mac Jones to look his way often once again as the 49ers aim to mitigate the impact of an aggressive Bucs defense on their gameplan. In short, McCaffrey is in a strong spot to write another page in the history books in Week 6.
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