Getty Christian McCaffrey went down with an injury during Sunday's win at Washington.
Good thing the Arizona Cardinals could help out the San Francisco 49ers.
Running back Christian McCaffrey might not have been available had the 49ers needed him for Week 18 to close out the No. 1 seed according to head coach Kyle Shanahan. McCaffrey injured his calf on Sunday during the 49ers’ 27-10 victory over the Washington Commanders.
“I don’t know if we would have been able to go the next week or not, but we’ll have to find out more tomorrow,” Shanahan told reporters after the game.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals stunned the Philadelphia Eagles 35-31, which locked up the top NFC playoff seed for the 49ers, who watched eagerly after the Commanders game. It renders the Niners finale void of any playoff implications in Week 18.
Deebo, Kittle and Aiyuk’s reaction to the Cardinals win for the @49ers to lock up the #1 seed is incredible.
(via @TracyFGSN, @MikeSilver)
“Yes, that’s why we’re late in here. It was awesome,” Shanahan said. “They didn’t want to really try not to pay attention to it and get our hearts broke, but we did right there at the end and they pulled it out. It was pretty cool to see.”
McCaffrey going down with any injury meanwhile isn’t cool for San Francisco. He had an MVP-caliber season going and topped 2,000 all-purpose yards on Sunday — the first 49ers player to do it since Frank Gore in 2006.
“We think he will be alright,” Shanahan said about McCaffrey. “But he was moving alright on the sidelines. So hoping it’s not too bad.”
McCaffrey has 1,395 yards rushing for 14 touchdowns plus 537 receiving yards and seven touchdowns this year. He had 64 yards rushing and five catches for 27 yards before exiting the game on Sunday.
Elijah Mitchell Steps Up for 49ers
With McCaffrey down, running back Elijah Mitchell stepped up with 80 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.
“I thought Elijah did a great job. You know, I mean he’s as good as anybody,” Shanahan said. “He’s been working to come back.”
Mitchell had been dealing with a knee injury, but he produced when healthy this season. He had 149 yards on 44 carries going into Sunday’s game.
“He was close to [returning] last week, and has had a real good week this week, and he was ready for the moment,” Shanahan said. “And then when Christian went down, he just came in and took over. ”
Niners Will Rest Some Starters in Week 18
San Francisco won’t need to play all starters in the season finale against the Los Angeles Rams, but Shanahan won’t tip his cap on who will sit.
“I’m not sure. I really didn’t think about it,” Shanahan said initially. “We’re just focused on this. I definitely will try to rest some guys, but I mean you can’t rest everybody.”
“It’s too hard when you don’t have enough players, so we got to fill the team without a doubt, but we’re going to have a big week of practice,” Shanahan added.
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San Francisco dealt with its share of injuries in recent weeks, and the Week 16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens left reminders of areas to improve. The 49ers also earned the playoff by, so any starters who sit would actually have three weeks until playing again.
“You know, I still think there’s lots of things where we can obviously get a lot better at, and the only way you do that is playing football and practicing football,” Shanahan added. “So I say Thursday [and] Friday, I’ll figure out our roster as the week goe and decide what we’ll do for Sunday.”