SANTA CLARA — It’s clear Christian McCaffrey brings a bruising running style to the 49ers’ offense, but Brock Purdy believes the former All-Pro brings even more than that.
“As a quarterback, it feels good to know Christian’s going to give the O-Line, myself, this team, everything he’s got every single run,” Purdy said Thursday. “If you watch the film, there’s stuff where it could be like a two-, three-yard gain, but Christian keeps his motor going and he’ll get an eight-yard gain, nine, 10 yards.”
McCaffrey leads the NFL with 353 rushing yards through three games, and was named NFC Offensive Player of the Month for September. Along with his three rushing touchdowns, he also has caught 11 of his 13 targets for 70 yards.
What McCaffrey does off the field, however, has had an effect on Purdy and the locker room.
“The way Christian prepares and what he does at practice, you just see the drive and the hunger that he has and love for this game,” Purdy said. “So, when we go out onto the field for the games, we know we’re going to get his best.
“He’s a huge difference-maker. We can always rely on Christian to bring some juice and energy and we feed off it.”
McCaffrey ran like a man possessed during training camp, which might not always be the case for an established veteran. While the nature of the 49ers’ offense always has been incredibly physical, the addition of the Stanford product has taken the group up a notch, in Purdy’s opinion.
“It’s huge,” Purdy said. “When you see a guy on film bringing it, whether he is catching the ball, running the ball, he’s doing everything and not going down after the first hit. For us on the offense, if Christian’s willing to do it like a playmaker who’s not just all about the stats and he’s doing the dirty work, for us to be able to see that we’re like OK, we want to get behind this guy and feed off it and do what he’s doing.”
McCaffrey was a perfect match for the 49ers’ offense and their yards-after-the-catch style of play. Along with George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and Kyle Juszczyk, the running back is consistently gaining yards after breaking tackles.
“He sort of sets the standard, and we all love following him and playing alongside Christian,” Purdy said. “He’s special.”
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