49ers film room: How Christian McCaffrey fits, and what he brings to, the 49ers offense part 1: the run game

A look into what Christian McCaffrey brings to the 49ers run game.

The 49ers made the first blockbuster trade of the NFL season when they traded their second, third, and fourth round picks in the 2023 draft and a fifth round pick in 2024 to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for Christian McCaffrey at the start of week seven. The 49ers are hoping this is the spark they need to get their offense going as they get near the midway point of the NFL season.

The 49ers are ranked 20th in the NFL in scoring at 20.3 points per game by the offense and defense. Their offense, however, is only actually scoring 16.8 points per game. That is an alarming number for an offensive system with this kind of weapons and the caliber of head coach Kyle Shanahan is. The 49ers needed to do something.

For his career from 2017 through week seven of the 2022 season, McCaffrey has 874 rushing attempts for 4,018 yards and 32 touchdowns, 4.6 yards per attempt. He also has 392 receptions, 3,316 receiving yards, and 18 receiving touchdowns. He is averaging nearly 20 touches per game. That may be the single biggest factor in his recent injury history.

At the height of his career in Carolina, that was up to over 22 touches per game. That is a lot of wear and tear. I would be surprised if he has many games over 12-15 touches in Shanahan’s offense. There are just too many weapons in this offense to give him many more.

So how does he fit in the 49ers offense? The 49ers will undoubtedly play him all over the field as a running back, in the slot as a wide receiver, and out wide. This first part of a two part series will focus on McCaffrey as a running back.

McCaffrey is a uniquely gifted and versatile player whose talents are utilized in a variety of ways. When he is in the backfield as a running back, there might not be a better pure runner in terms of vision, cut ability, and speed in the NFL. He is so talented that he cannot just be used in the backfield as a traditional running back. But if he is, he can both run the outside zone and inside running game schemes that Shanahan likes to employ.

Outside zone

In the outside zone, running backs need to have good vision and cut ability because the blocking in front of them does not always open the same running lane as they would on gap scheme running plays where lanes usually open at a clearly defined point along the offensive line in a specific gap.

This play showcases all those traits above. The Panthers are running outside zone to the offense’s left with McCaffrey out of 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end). The sift blocker on the play blocks the backside defensive end and prevents the defender from chasing the run down from behind.

The running back’s aim point on the outside zone run is the outside leg of the play side tackle. From there, he has two reads from the outside in, the end man on the line of scrimmage and the next inside defender.

If number one and number two are pinned inside, he knows he is bouncing to the perimeter. If one is outside but two is inside, he cuts to the lane between the two. If both one and two are outside, he hits the crease behind number two. The running back will know what is happening by the time he hits his third step and presses his landmark.

McCaffrey shows incredible vision and elite one-cut ability. He is explosive through the small crease that opens behind the number defender in his read and he has speed to outrun the defense as soon as he bursts through the crease. In the Shanahan offense, this is the skill set they need from the running back. He shows textbook running back footwork in the outside zone, deciding where to go and seeing the crease by his 3rd step, hitting the bend read.

Duo

He also excels at running downhill between the tackles on non-outside zone running plays. For an explosive runner who has his speed, he also displays the patience to run inside and let his blocks develop.

On “duo,” the offensive line blocks the defensive front with a series of double team blocks, making the running back’s read the middle linebacker in the second level. It is a downhill vertical running game concept that looks like inside zone but is considered a gap scheme run because it creates new gaps along the front by displacing defenders with the double team blocks. 

Just like outside zone, in the running back’s first three steps, he reads the run fit of the middle linebacker to determine if he is going to stay on an inside track or bounce to the edge away from the defender.

The play requires the patience to let the blocks develop and the ability to set up the MIKE linebacker for failure. As McCaffrey presses the B-gap, the middle linebacker tries to fit the run in the interior play side B-gap. As he does, McCaffrey shows his quick 1-cut ability and sneaks through a small crease that opens away from the interior point of attack. The result is a 14 yard gain.

Duo windback

Duo windback or duo wrap is a nice misdirection change up to regular duo. The windback blocker blocks the first force defender on the edge or works to the safety if no edge threat is present. For the offensive line, the blocking can look like an inside zone depending on the front and the blocking assignments.

The above screenshot comes from Shanahan’s time as the offensive coordinator with the Houston Texans.

The center/guard combo blocks the play side defensive tackle and works to the MIKE linebacker while the play side tackle works to the SAM linebacker. The running back takes a counter step before reversing direction to follow the wrap block.

After seeing the duo blocking scheme a number of times already in this week two game versus the Saints, the Panthers called duo windback as a tendency breaker. McCaffrey’s counter step to the right gets the linebacker and safety to fit the front side of the formation as the wrapper and McCaffrey reverse course to the backside. McCaffrey’s speed on the edge gets them the first down.

For the 49ers, this has been an effective play against teams with an aggressive backside defensive end. Since the 49ers “cross sift” block a ton with their traditional running game concepts, it can be quite effective at sealing off the backside defensive end who might be inclined to crash upfield on the sift blocker a bit more aggressively.

Here the 49ers use it with a jet motion from receiver Jauan Jennings (No. 15) to the back side while tight end Ross Dwelley (No. 82) sift or arc blocks across to the play side. Since the safety is down in the box to the play side, the play side receiver, Trent Sherfield (No. 81) has tagged responsibility to block him with Dwelley getting on the edge to block the corner.

So far in the run game, McCaffrey has run their outside zone concepts and a gap scheme power load concept. His first three carries went for 31 yards on Sunday on split zone, power, and weak outside zone.

In each run, you can see the decisiveness with which he runs. The cut ability, the vision, setting up his blockers, and the quick decision making to hit the crease before it opens should propel this running game to the next level and get the explosiveness back that it is currently lacking.

In part two, we will look at his usage in the passing game.