Why Christian McCaffrey has 'clear upside' - despite the workload & injury risk
Yahoo Sports fantasy analysts Josh Norris and Hayden Winks discuss how the 49ers running back could fare in 2026 - following a 450-touch workload a season ago. Check out the full conversation on "Yahoo Fantasy Football with Josh and Hayden" - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen .
Video Transcript
Up your running back three, our running back four together is Christian McCaffrey.
I'll give you the floor here.
Yeah.
Every other year he wins your league.
So, you know, there's like- Yeah a 50% chance of you winning your league.
That seems pretty good versus the baseline expectation here.
So obviously we're dealing with some concerns.
He's coming off 450 touches.
The history of, of running backs with that is not good.
I will say Christian McCaffrey like very clearly takes care of his body, and is like very on top of things.
So if there's somebody that's gonna, buck that trend, I do think that Christian McCaffrey would be that type of candidate.
On top of that, he is gonna be catching a bunch of passes.
There's still a lot of question marks in the skill group there, lots of players coming off injuries, lots of unproven players.
In general, he's still very good as a receiver.
On top of that, there's not gonna be goal line competition.
Kaylen Black, a rookie third rounder who's had a nice preseason, but, completely unproven in the, in the pros.
And I think that Christian McCaffrey, whether they want him to touch the ball 20 times or not, I think they kind of have to do that.
This year the, the 49ers defense isn't that great.
So I could see him just catching a bunch of passes as he always does.
RB1 with six receptions per game last year.
Even if he plays 12 games, I give you guys, you know, five games missed, how much he scores in those 12 games, it's still outlandish.
So you have to time it well, you have to get lucky here.
But I do think he's got clearly the highest upside of anyone remaining.
