Last season’s Offensive Player of the Year RB may finally play his first game since Super Bowl LVIII in February. Landing on the injury reserves back in September, Christian McCaffrey almost made a return, citing a recovered calf issue. However, his Achilles tendinitis didn’t allow him to do so as the 49ers’ RB instead travelled to Germany to get a specialist for his seamless recovery.

Now, after 9 weeks of the season, McCaffrey could finally wear his cleats back to slowly make his way into the field. Well, the 49ers had already opened CMC’s 21-day practice window at the start of this week. But former 49ers CB Richard Sherman believes that McCaffrey could also have played the Cowboys clash last week, “I heard it from the horse’s mouth. He feels really good, and he felt like he could have probably played last week.”

But the 49ers didn’t want to take any risks. Instead, they preferred him to go through more practice before his eventual return, “They wanted to be overly cautious and just give him more weeks of practice and more time to work that thing out to feel comfortable, and feel confident, and he does… All signs point to him playing, and probably a significant role in this game.”

Without their star running back, Jordan Mason has excelled on the opportunity given this season. Having only played 5 games in McCaffrey’s absence, Mason delivered 85.6 rushing yards per game. Meanwhile, Mason finds himself fourth in the NFL for 685 rushing yards, thereby showing his brilliance whenever called upon.

However, the 49ers don’t have any breathing space with their injuries. Although McCaffrey would soon make his way back into the lineup, their $120 million receiver Brandon Aiyuk is out for the season (ACL). Elsewhere, Deebo Samuel is constantly dealing with rib and oblique, thereby limiting his availability over the weeks. With Christian McCaffrey’s return coming closer, the 49ers community is rather happy but also cautious in their approach.

Christian McCaffrey’s return to the Bay Area

Seeing McCaffrey for the first time in a while couldn’t stop left tackle Trent Williams from expressing his excitement, “It’s such an amazing feeling to see that 2-3 out there doing his extensive warmup and a million high knees he does before practice. It was great seeing him.” Without McCaffrey’s thunderous drives on the offense, the 49ers have struggled to score TDs this season. They only rank a measly 28th for their red zone conversation rate. Only managing to score 48.6% of their drives over the past 8 games.

Even Williams rues his absence from their offense, saying, “Obviously, our offense is kind of tailor-made to him and some of his strengths, so definitely going to be a tremendous lift for us.” Well, the 49ers’ head coach, Kyle Shanahan, is also hoping that his star running back gets back to normal shape sooner: “The expectation is to see how he is, when he gets back and then evaluate him as he goes. Of course, the hope is that everything just goes back to normal, and it’s perfect.”

As CMC nears his prolonged absence from the 49ers offense. There could be a boost waiting for the 49ers in the later parts of this season. With McCaffrey on their offense, they might be able to continue their charge to qualify for the playoffs yet again.