If it sounds like it’s going to be a while until we see Christian McCaffrey back on the field in 2024, it’s because it is going to be a while. Fantasy football’s best-kept secret heading into the regular season just happened to involve the top overall player from each of the past two seasons, and after being a surprise inactive in Week 1, it seems like the 49ers weren’t letting on just how severe the injury was for CMC. Now, the 49ers star running back (and Madden 25 cover athlete, if you’re even a little stitious) is pulling a page out of Christian Watson’s book to see a specialist about whatever it is that’s ailing him. We would assume it’s his Achilles since that’s the designation he’s received, but since we also assumed that McCaffrey would play in Week 1 and the 49ers bamboozled us on that one, it seems like you can never be too certain. At this point, it’s unlikely that McCaffrey will return sooner rather than later once his time on IR is served. That means Jordan Mason will continue to be the next man up for the foreseeable future, making him an every-week must-start moving forward and an excellent asset in trades given the unclear timetable on CMC’s recovery.