Will CMC be Enough?
The NFL’s trade deadline is each team’s final opportunity to place their bet. Halfway through the season, teams ask themselves if they have what it takes to make a run at the Super Bowl. And, if they’re close, who can we add to get there?
On October 20, over a week before this year’s deadline, the San Francisco 49ers pushed all their chips in. They traded a bounty of draft picks to the folding Caroline Panthers for Christian McCaffrey, a superstar running back with a sleek, three-letter nickname (CMC) and an endless supply of highlight reel plays.
In the traditional run game, McCaffrey has a rare, mechanical shiftiness, his limbs firing like pistons. He’ll dart to the line of scrimmage, hop through a tiny gap between offensive linemen and explode for ten yards, finishing the run with his shoulder down like a battering ram — the kind of no-holds-barred attitude that general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan require for their brand of hard-nosed football.
Will the addition of CMC be enough to take the running game to the next level?
The more cynical faction of 49er fans questioned the logic of the move, fires stoked by brash Sports Illustrated columnist Grant Cohn. He’s an impish figure, ready to overreact with the gleaming eyes of a knowing troll or, at his worst, denigrate struggling players with an unprofessional harshness.
While he’s generated hours of content discussing the trade, his basic thesis is very simple: Why give up so much (draft picks in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds of the upcoming drafts) to add a player to an already strong position?
While the 49ers have faltered plenty for a popular preseason Super Bowl pick (they currently stand 4–4, second place to the surprising Seahawks), losing winnable games to the Bears, Broncos and Falcons, the running game has not been the issue.
Shanahan’s famous zone run scheme has put up a respectable 125 yards per game, led by Jeff Wilson, a likable, hard-running and undervalued undrafted free agent who ranks 8th in rushing efficiency (and has since been traded to the Miami Dolphins for a lone, 5th-round draft pick).
However, the praise for Shanahan’s run-game design, as well as the fodder for questioning the CMC trade is the same: It works no matter who you put back there.
The previous years’ leading rushers: Elijah Moore (5th-round draft pick), Raheem Mostert (undrafted free agent) and Matt Breida (undrafted free agent). As long as they can make a fast, back-cut against the grain of the flowing offensive linemen (moving to a zone, rather than blocking a man), they can pick up huge chunks on the ground.
But the early returns are positive. In CMC’s first game as a 49er (a loss to the world-beating Chiefs), the back reeled off multiple runs of 10+ yards while displaying an elusiveness 49ers fans haven’t seen out of the running back position. These rushes were the highlights of one of the NFL’s marquee backs.
But it wasn’t enough to beat the Chiefs, the same match-up that dashed the 49ers’ Super Bowl dreams in 2019 — and one that, if everything goes right for Shanahan’s squad, could determine this year’s Super Bowl winner.
Can CMC do enough to get them there? For the fans and frenzied sports media, a Super Bowl berth might be enough to justify the trade.
He just might be able to do it. His aptitude to deliver punishment isn’t the only thing that makes him a Shanahan-Lynch prototype. He’s also versatile, likely the best route-running tailback in the league. Shanahan can motion him from the backfield, where he can beat a linebacker unfortunate enough to line up across from him. Just like Shanahan can motion Deebo Samuel into the backfield to take carries. The star receiver is built more like a running back and routinely clears even more unfortunate cornerbacks from his path with brute force.
In Samuel’s absence (pulled hamstring) in a Week 8 showdown against the rams, CMC picked up the slack. He did most of his damage through the air, running slick routes out of the backfield, catching the signature quick, short passes from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo before dodging would-be tacklers and moving the chains.
CMC is just the latest addition of game-changing talent on a stacked 49ers team. The first was goldmine pick in the 5th round, tight end George Kittle, who broke the receiving yards in his second year in the pros. Last year, Samuel broke out, dragging the team out of an offensive rut and becoming a do-everything player — catching passes and designed screens, taking end-arounds and even running the ball between the tackles, where lineman and linebackers throw their weight around. Brandon Aiyuk, their other wide receiver, is a star in the making, smooth and quick, with a wide catch radius, but underutilized — because fifth-year starter Garoppolo throws most of his passes short and over the middle of the field.
This inability to push the ball down the field has plagued the 49ers. Defenses creep in to stop the run and put Jimmy in obvious passing downs. And when they bring the pressure, he can make head-scratching decisions with the football, not to mention miss deep shots down the field.
Will CMC be the final missing piece, as many pundits have predicted?
Two games in, it appears that he does fill a void. Most of Jimmy G’s worst plays come when his first and second reads are taken away. Without the howitzer-of-an-arm like star quarterbacks or the improvisational skills or physical prowess of other top QBs, he tries to fit the ball into tight windows or crumples under the pressure. Up until now, he hasn’t had a true outlet receiver out of the backfield with sure hands and elusiveness after the catch.
On multiple third downs against the Rams, Jimmy found CMC, who did the rest. And on a key 3rd and 3 in the red zone, where the 49ers have struggled of late, he and CMC performed a kind of ESP — the running back slipping behind the linebacker in the flat. Jimmy lofted a pass to the end zone where CMC leaped up, snatched the ball out of the air and landed in bounds, giving the 49ers a lead they never relinquished over their divisional rivals.
On that day, CMC was enough. He was more than enough. The do-it-all back even took a pitch from Garoppolo and threw a beautiful 30+ yard touchdown pass to Aiyuk.
But it isn’t the Super Bowl defending, recently swept Rams standing in their path this year. Now the question is will CMC be enough to help them catch the first-place Seahawks?
It would appear so. The 49ers are better on paper and on the field, too, earlier this year. The 49ers’ defense shut out its northwestern nemesis, taking pressure off the offense, who tallied three touchdowns and a pair of field goals.
Since that Week 2 divisional match, the Seahawks have found a new identity — pounding the rock with star rookie Kenneth Walker and Geno Smith making just enough opportunistic plays to Tyler Lockett and Terminator-looking DK Metcalf. The counted-out squad now holds an impressive 6–3 record. Even so, the well-trained, ascendant, yet unproven Seattle defense may not have answers for the 49ers’ multi-pronged attack when it comes time for the rubber match in front of the 12th man.
But with a two-game lead in the division, the game will not necessarily determine the winner of the West.
Even if the Seahawks hold on to their mid-season advantage, the 49ers’ path to the playoffs is conspicuously clear. Dallas, at 6–2, appears primed to lock up the first wild card spot, but Aaron Rodgers and the Packers are riding the Ayahuasca comedown, to the tune of 3–6. The Buccaneers, another perennial powerhouse scraped out a win over the lackluster Rams to get to 4–5, just by the hair on Tom Brady’s recently divorced chin. The Saints show flashes of dominance but can’t put it together. Obstructing a wild card berth, as of now, are the feel-good, deeply flawed Giants.
It might be early to call it, but NFC will likely go through Philadelphia. The team is well-balanced, riding the right arm and speedy legs of rising star Jalen Hurts, plus their powerful lineman on either side of the ball.
Will the addition of CMC be enough to take the juggernaut down?
It will likely be decided by the defense and defense, for the 49ers, starts with their defensive line play. The engine of this Ferrari-of-a-unit is Nick Bosa, a stunning mixture of technical mastery, quickness and power. In D-line coach Kris Kocurek’s signature Wide-9 attack, the line widens out, giving the edge rushers, Bosa on one side and exceptionally solid Samson Ekubam on the other, better angles to blitz the quarterback. It’s a scheme that dominates most offensive lines and their passers but is often exposed against mobile quarterbacks. To Kocurek’s credit, he’s adjusted his Wide-9 against duel-threat quarterbacks. Even so, Atlanta’s resurgent Marcus Mariota ran for 50 yards and cruised to 13 out of 14 completions against the highly touted defense.
In truth, this theoretical game might lie on the broad shoulders of Arik Armstead, not the 49ers’ shiny new toy CMC, but one of their longest-tenured players who is returning from Injured Reserve this week. The interior defensive lineman stops the run in the middle without diminishing the potent pass rush and always seems to play his best football in the postseason.
Other match-up questions abound if the 49ers do indeed reach the NFC championship and it’s the Eagles waiting for them there. Will equal-parts cerebral and high-flying Fred Warner along with Dre Greenlaw and recently returning Aziz Al-Shaair (two forces of nature in their own right) be able to bottle up the Eagles’ dynamic running game. Will newly added, highly paid Mooney Ward lock down the electric A.J. Brown? All before the offense even takes the field.
Will the line get bullied up front or make just enough room for the back to burst through? Will the creativity of Shanahan prevail? Will Jimmy G stand in the pocket and deliver the ball to one of his many playmakers?
By their willingness to mortgage the future to bring CMC to the Bay, the 49ers brass seems to think so — or at least that there is a good chance.
They’re not unaccustomed to making such gambles. Before the 2021 season, the Lynch-Shanahan brain trust traded an even more valuable package to Miami to own the 3rd pick of the draft and select Trey Lance.
The North Dakota State quarterback was thought to be a project with an immense upside. The goal was, as prognosticators have said, to elevate the offense from the short game with Jimmy to an explosive game, where the young, fast athlete with a powerful arm would be enough to take the 49ers beyond where Jimmy could — just about as close as you can get. One completed deep pass to streaking Emanuel sanders away from winning the Super Bowl. Beyond that, to the Promised Land. His unique set of skills, everyone thought, would be enough.
It wasn’t enough last year. The young quarterback, plagued by a chipped bone in his finger or a lack of NFL readiness (likely both), could not wrestle the starting job away from the incumbent. Then, after a dramatic, soap-opera off-season, Lance held onto to job even after Jimmy was re-signed, only to go down with a brutal broken ankle in the second week of the season.
Back to relying on Garoppolo, CMC must bear the weight of the Chosen One, ready to unleash the offense to its fullest potential and take home the Lombardi trophy.
And let’s say he does. Let’s say he’s enough for that.
Will that, and he by the transitive property, be enough to justify the time I’ve spent following the 49ers?
I have researched only three facts in this entire article. I can recite 98% of the team’s 50-man roster off the top of my head. I know that Jimmy is a bad texter. I know that star tackle Trent Williams flew rookie offensive lineman Jason Poe to Houston to train together. I know that Mooney Ward loves romance novels. I don’t try to memorize it, it’s been retained through the osmosis of obsession.
The first query I search on google when I hit lunchtime is ‘49ers news.’ On my drive to work, I’ll listen to reporters who have access to the team: Haberman and Middlekauf, David Lombardi, and, unfortunately, Grant Cohn. My current girlfriend and my ex-wife have bonded most closely over the way they say I yell at the screen when the 49ers play and how, for a third of the year, four hours of every Sunday are lost to this team.
Will a Super Bowl win be enough to satiate my bottomless appetite for anything 49ers? Will CMC give me my life back?
Will it be enough to feel like everything is going right after all? In 2019, my marriage ended. And that season, the 49ers turned it around. They went from a team with a few interesting pieces to a squad possessed. They rattled off eight wins to start the season, surprising everyone but me. They made the first two rounds of the postseason look easy. The 49ers were even up 10 points in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs.
I dared to think something crazy: If they win, this year was worth it — and maybe, my luck is turning around. (Who can blame me, a kid who watched “Angels in the Outfield” so much as a kid the VHS came spooling apart in luminescent loops.)
Maybe CMC will be enough to do just that. But will it be enough to satisfy the reason I cared about the 49ers in the first place?
I watched the 49ers when I could growing up. Since we’d moved to Colorado, I had to get lucky with the network schedule to see their games. And when I did, it was often disappointing. After a magical playoff game against the Giants, led by Jeff Garcia and Terrell Owens, there were the dark years. Mike Singletary. Tim Rattay. Taking Alex Smith instead of Aaron Rodgers. Then a flash of brilliance: Smith running around the left side behind 49er-favorite Joe Staley, Smith hitting Vernon Davis between two colliding Saints, Jim Harbaugh, not throwing a tantrum but embracing the teary-eyed Davis on the sidelines.
Then I went to college, and I was too busy for watching sports. I was busy riding the bench of the baseball team, pining after girls, drinking cheap vodka and having an existential crisis. I was thrilled by Colin Kaepernick’s breakout season, but I didn’t watch the regular season. I tuned in for their path to the Super Bowl. I walked back to my dorm angry that they didn’t hand the ball off to Frank Gore and that the referees didn’t call a holding as Michael Crabtree moved toward the back of the end zone for what would become Kaepernick’s last meaningful throw. But I slept soundly.
Now I am devasted by every regular season loss. Will CMC be enough to take this burden from me?
I began watching the 49ers because I was bored. I’d just graduated college and moved to Boston. I didn’t have too many friends around. I took a break from reading the Big Literary Books on Sundays, and usually alone, decided to illegally stream my old childhood team.
I must have been so lonely. I stuck to it through the two brutal years with Tomsula and Chip Kelley. I remember darting into a bar by the Garden, nursing the three light beers I could afford and cheering as Blaine fucking Gabbert ran up the sideline for a meaningless overtime win against a mediocre Bears team.
When Shanahan arrived, it felt like the beginning of something special. He gutted the roster and picked up exciting talents in the first year. That’s when the names of players started coming to me easily, like talking about your high school friends — reciting their nicknames and mentioning inside jokes. It’s Celek time.
They went nine weeks without a win, losing half in such close, heart-breaking fashion, you couldn’t help but love them. In their first win, Marquise Goodwin caught a bomb from C.J. Beathard and collapsed in the end zone. Little did fans know his wife had miscarried that week, and he had played the game for that unborn son. 49ers fans like me believed he was just as emotional as us to score in such a beautiful fashion.
Whenever people ask me why I’m a 49ers fan, I skip the part where I say that my family is from Sacramento and that I used to live in California. I just say that my grandpa was a big 49ers fan.
He didn’t need another 49ers championship. He’d lived through the glory years of the 80s and 90s. But he wanted one. I remember watching the game with him on his tiny square TV and thinking how insane it was that he got so mad. It was also, after I hadn’t seen him for years, one of the easiest ways for us to connect. (That, and despising Republicans. I remember my conservative parents watching nervously as I watched Rachel Maddow with him circa 2005, thinking this lady makes some good points.) Whenever I called him on the phone to wish him a Happy Birthday or Merry Christmas, we’d chat about politics and the 49ers.
He was the only person I knew in real life who knew as much as me about the 49ers roster. I remember discussing Jerick McKinnon’s contract and Dems’ midterms prospects while nearby family members were silent, biting their dissenting tongues and not knowing what a McKinnon is. I think, part of the reason I opened my laptop that fall day in October, was so I would have something to talk to my grandpa about the next time I called.
My grandpa died last year. I called him the night he passed and told him I loved him. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I told him about all my best memories with him. I might have mentioned the 49ers, I can’t remember. My uncle said he was having a hard time breathing so I said goodbye.
My grandma has Alzheimer’s, but the next day she asked her attendant where Tom was. She hasn’t been able to remember anyone’s name in years. I remember walking around my neighborhood in Brooklyn that week and feeling a calming sensation — even as family drama unfolded around me. When the next stress-inducing event came, I felt that sensation and thought it was going to be okay.
For the 49ers opener just a few weeks later, I was doing errands with my daughter and my girlfriend. I couldn’t stream the game on my phone and none of the nearby bars had it on. I was distraught, panicked even. I could not put into words how much I needed to see the game. I still don’t know why I needed to see it then — and why I still do now.
Sometimes, I wonder if I’ll feel that same sensation if the 49ers win the Super Bowl. Will CMC be enough to reconnect me and my grandpa across the mortal veil?
Will he be enough to help the 49ers beat the Chargers tomorrow?
Will he be enough to bring glory to a franchise with an uncertain future? Enough to shut up Grant Cohn?
Most impressively, will he be enough for people to forget the Falcons, whose offense was coordinated by Shanahan, blew a 28–3 lead?
They don’t call him a do-it-all back for nothing.
