SANTA CLARA, Calif. — As the rest of his San Francisco 49ers teammates get some much-needed downtime during this week’s bye, running back Christian McCaffrey has reached an important benchmark in his recovery from Achilles tendinitis.
McCaffrey, who missed the first eight games of the season because of the injury, will remain in the Bay Area this week to do what coach Kyle Shanahan described Monday as “simulated practice stuff” with an eye toward opening his practice window on Nov. 4.
“It depends how this week goes,” Shanahan said. “He’s had no setbacks, so it looks like we’re on track, but he’s going to hit it hard this week while we’re gone … as long as it all goes good, hopefully we’ll get him back in practice next week.”
The 49ers have been eagerly anticipating McCaffrey’s return since Shanahan announced his star running back was dealing with a calf injury on Aug. 6. Shanahan later revealed that McCaffrey was also battling Achilles tendinitis, which has lingered beyond the calf issue and eventually caused the Niners to place McCaffrey on injured reserve on Sept. 14.
That all came after the Niners and McCaffrey originally said he would be available for the Sept. 9 opener against the New York Jets. Upon placing McCaffrey on injured reserve, Shanahan said it needed to be done as a means to get McCaffrey to rest and recover.
A week later, McCaffrey visited with a specialist in Germany while the Niners traveled to Los Angeles to play the Rams on Sept. 22.
“After we decided to put him on IR, I think it’s been pretty easy,” Shanahan said. “That’s why we did decide to do that. We knew it was going to be at least a month and shut him down for a while, and now build him up slowly and things have been going well, so now it’s going to be nice to get him back hopefully.”
Once the 49ers open McCaffrey’s practice window, they will have 21 days to decide whether to activate him to the roster or have him revert back to IR for the rest of the season. But Shanahan has previously expressed optimism that McCaffrey could be available for the Nov. 10 meeting with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the bye.
Just how much of a workload McCaffrey might be capable of after missing so much time also remains to be seen and will depend on how practice goes once he gets back in the mix.
“The expectation is to see how he is when he gets back and then evaluate him as he goes,” Shanahan said. “Of course, the hope is that everything just goes back to normal and it’s perfect. That’s what we’re all striving for, but you’ve got to play that out smartly and you’ve got to evaluate that each day. What we see with our own eyes, what he tells us. That’ll be something we constantly are working through.”
McCaffrey isn’t the only injured Niner the team will be monitoring throughout the bye and when it gets back to work next week.
Receiver Deebo Samuel (hip and oblique strain), running back Jordan Mason (sprained left shoulder), cornerback Renardo Green (ankle sprain) and receiver Chris Conley (hamstring) came out of Sunday night’s win against the Dallas Cowboys with injuries.
Shanahan said Samuel and Mason will get the bye week off and then be reevaluated on Monday, Green is considered day-to-day and Conley will be week-to-week. Receiver Jauan Jennings, who has missed the past two games with a hip injury, is expected to return against Tampa Bay, according to Shanahan.
Linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who is still recovering from the torn left Achilles he suffered in Super Bowl LVIII, does not yet have a timetable to begin practicing, but Shanahan said that will crystallize a bit after the bye.
“I hate to give a rough timeline for you guys because we’re not exactly sure of it,” Shanahan said. “I think once we get back from this bye week, I think he’s going to be week-to-week deciding whether we should get him back into practice deal or not … I think once it gets past the bye week, then we’ll be looking each week on whether we should bring him back or not because it is getting closer.”
