Kaelon Black entered the NFL as a proven winner.
He won a national championship with the Indiana Hoosiers at the end of the last college football season, taking handoffs from Fernando Mendoza as a standout running back.
He had followed Curt Cignetti from James Madison to IU, and it paid off for him.
Black turned his starring role into a third-round selection in the 2026 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers.
And being with the 49ers meant something especially cool for Black — his first NFL regular season game is being played in Melbourne, Australia.
Fans in the United States are watching it on Thursday night, although it’s Friday morning where the action is taking place.
And well, the start of the game has been fascinating. At halftime, Black has more carries than 49ers superstar running back Christian McCaffrey.
Black has run seven times for 36 yards and caught one pass for five yards. McCaffrey has three runs for 17 yards but does have four catches for 20 yards.
It quickly has everyone wondering who Black is and why the heck he’s getting the ball more than CMC.
Why Is Kaelon Black Playing Over Christian McCaffrey?
The Netflix broadcast color commentator, Luke Kuechly, discussed this reality pretty early: McCaffrey led the NFL in touches last season.
CMC got the ball 450 times for the 49ers, a workload that simply isn’t sustainable. McCaffrey has a checkered injury history, and he’s also not getting any younger. There was no way that the 49ers could let him repeat that amount of action.
That likely is a big reason they drafted Black. They weren’t just thinking about the future after McCaffrey but the present with McCaffrey.
Black also brings more pass-catching ability than a few of McCaffrey’s past backups. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan likely feels like he can use Black in more of the roles that he uses CMC than some of the more plodding 49ers backups of the past.
All told, it’s not a fluke.
No, Black isn’t always going to get more carries than McCaffrey, but it isn’t crazy that that’s what happened in the first half of the season.
Kaelon Black NFL Combine, 40-Yard Dash
Black had a lot of intriguing traits at the NFL Combine.
He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.46 seconds.
He also had a vertical leap of 37.5 inches.
Black measured at just 5-foot-9, but he’s a sturdy 211 pounds.
All told, he can be a powerful runner with an impressive burst. He’s not going to just take over for McCaffrey, but what he did at Indiana wasn’t a fluke.
In Black’s final college season, he had 1,040 yards on 5.6 yards per carry with the Hoosiers. It looks like he’s ready to translate his ability immediately into the NFL.
Why Indiana Champ Kaelon Black Is Running More Than Christian McCaffrey in 49ers’ Opener