The 49ers’ run game has long since been a one-man show. Save for the 2024 season when he spent most of the season on the shelf through injury, the fortunes of the ground attack have hinged almost squarely on Christian McCaffrey. With McCaffrey now 30 years old, that did not seem like a sensible approach heading into 2026 and, in their season-opening demolition of the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, the Niners changed course to devastating effect.
San Francisco has spent years investing draft capital in the running back position with little return on investment. Though the Niners had Elijah Mitchell and Jordan Mason behind McCaffrey in 2023, no back has been able to command something approaching an equal share of the workload with the four-time first-team All-Pro.
But on Thursday — or Friday local time — McCaffrey was actually in the rare position of having fewer carries than the man behind him on the depth chart.
Rookie Kaelon Black had 14 carries to McCaffrey’s 10. Though that was partially due to McCaffrey dealing with cramps, Kyle Shanahan confirmed after the game that having a balanced approach was the plan.
“I thought they both ran really hard and really well,” Shanahan said.
“I’ll see on the plane exactly how good it was, but it felt like it out there. That was the goal for us coming into this, trying to balance it out more, whether it was with Kaelon or getting Deebo some carries.”
Last season, there was little balance as McCaffrey had 311 rush attempts, the highest amount of his career, but averaged just 3.9 yards per carry in one of his least efficient seasons. His backup, Brian Robinson Jr, had just 92 carries.
But with McCaffrey and Black sharing the workload more evenly, the 49ers’ run game was outstandingly efficient as San Francisco — aided by some typically nifty scrambling from Brock Purdy — racked up 174 yards.
Black had 65 yards on his 14 rushes, an average of 4.6 yards, showing explosiveness through the hole on zone runs that illustrated why Shanahan was convinced to use a third-round selection on a player most had pegged going much later in this year’s draft.
The performance of Black drew praise from McCaffrey, who said after the game: “He did incredible. Oh, he’s an awesome back, man. I said this earlier, but he’s a force and he’s someone who’s going to help our team a whole lot. It was really cool to see him go out there and just do what he does.”
Yet just as eye-opening as Black’s showing was the impact the rest had on McCaffrey, who, despite the cramps had 68 yards on 10 carries, his average of 6.8 yards his best since his final game of that disrupted 2024 campaign, when he put up 7.6 yards per rush against the Buffalo Bills before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
As a team, the 49ers averaged 5.9 yards per rush and 0.19 EPA per carry while putting up a 56.7% success rate on the ground. Both running backs finished the game with positive EPA per rush numbers (Black 0.02 and McCaffrey 0.27).
Of course, great credit must go to the offensive line, which got better as the game went on and did an excellent job of demolishing the edges and creating lanes for both backs.
But Black’s usage and impact on the game was one of the stories of Week 1 for the 49ers. Having clearly earned the trust of Shanahan, Black justified that faith, with the rest he afforded McCaffrey critical to the most efficient performance in over 20 months for San Francisco’s starter.
McCaffrey’s level of usage from past season was never going to be sustainable. For him to avoid the infamous cliff that running backs often hit once they reach 30, McCaffrey needs somebody to share the burden. It is only one game, but the early signs are that, in Black, the 49ers have found a back worthy of doing so.
For an offense as focused on the run as that of the 49ers, that may be the biggest development from their hugely impressive blowout win.
