Now, is there realistically any reason to sprout grey hairs over one comment from Kyle Shanahan regarding the top fantasy football player in the NFL? The answer is no, but with quality options available behind McCaffrey (longtime backup Elijah Mitchell, rookie Isaac Guerendo) as he enters his age 28 season, could we see McCaffrey’s every-down role begin to shrink a little in comparison to what we’ve seen in each of the past two years with San Francisco? It might not be out of the question. Of course, a mitigation in workload of such slight proportions isn’t any reason to drop McCaffrey out of consideration for the 1.01 in 2024 – it’s highly unlikely that Shanahan would revoke any high-value touches at the goal line as part of a potential ‘keep him clean’ program. However, when given the choice between a player like CMC and Ceedee Lamb at the 1.01, a lesser role than CMC’s had in years past could be the difference between taking him and Lamb first overall. It’s important to remember, also, that this qualifies very much as coachspeak with ten weeks to go before football returns, so this very well may be just a fleeting comment nobody remembers come the height of draft season in August. But the fact remains that the 49ers DO have talent behind CMC and he’s not getting any younger, and it isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility that the Niners start to dial back his workload at some point.
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