SANTA CLARA, Calif. — All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey heads into the week of practice preparing to play for the San Francisco 49ers even if the sore calf and Achilles tendon that held him out of the opener is still an issue.
McCaffrey was listed as limited in practice on Wednesday as the Niners prepared to visit the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
“My mentality is I’m playing this week and that’s where I’m at,” McCaffrey said. “That’s how I am every week. I’m not lying. I think as soon as a player says, ‘Maybe I’ll play, maybe I won’t,’ that’s not a good mentality to go into a week with when you’re kind of on the fence.”
McCaffrey took his decision on whether to play the opener up until game day before the opener even though he had been limited all week in practice after missing the final four weeks of training camp practice because of the injury.
When he woke up Monday and still didn’t feel right, the decision was made to hold him out of the game. McCaffrey said it will likely be a similar process the week with the fact that the game is being played on artificial turf not a factor.
“It was a group decision, a very tough one,” he said. “I hate not playing, but I look at it as a chess move something that hopefully you can benefit from the rest of the season.”
The Niners made up for McCaffrey’s absence thanks to a strong performance from backup Jordan Mason, who had 28 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown in San Francisco’s 32-19 victory over the New York Jets.
Mason, who had only 83 carries in his first two seasons in the NFL, had the most rush attempts in a regular-season game for the 49ers since Frank Gore had 31 in 2011 against Cleveland.
McCaffrey said he had little advice during the game for Mason and just enjoyed watching the performance.
“When you’re in a rhythm and you’re in a groove, you let him be,” McCaffrey said. “He showed that man. I was so pumped for him, just everything that he’s done all camp. He’s earned that. He’s balled out and it showed.”
Mason began his career as an undrafted free agent after having only 87 carries his final season at Georgia Tech playing behind future first-round pick Jahmyr Gibbs.
The Niners saw enough to sign him but Mason struggled at first to earn the trust of demanding running backs coach Bobby Turner and only got sporadic chances to play.
“Jordan has always had a ton of confidence, since the first day he got here,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “The most part is getting use to Bobby coaching him. Realizing that he is not always angry, he just kind of stays that way and kind of learn to appreciate it. I think Jordan has really pushed himself, each year, with the way he’s worked off the field.”
That work came to fruition on Monday night when Mason’s physical running style proved to be too tough for the Jets to handle.
He had 13 broken tackles, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, which was five more than any player in Week 1 and a number that was topped only twice all of last season.
Despite facing stacked boxes on a league-high half of his rushing attempts, Mason still had great success and showed that he’s worthy of carrying a bigger load even when McCaffrey is healthy.
“What (Jordan) also does is he’s just such a downhill runner and he’s a dense dude, sturdy, that’d be a good word for it,” All-Pro tight end George Kittle said. “He’s a dense, sturdy guy and he just runs downhill very physically. … Hopefully he can just keep doing that and there’ll be a very good substitute for Christian so we don’t have to play Christian for a hundred snaps a game.”
NOTES: K Jake Moody won NFC Special Teams Player of the Week after making six FGs in the opener. … DE Yetur Gross-Matos (knee) and LB Dee Winters (ankle) did not practice. … S Talanoa Hufanga (knee), LG Aaron Banks (finger, calf) and WR Jauan Jennings (ankle) were limited. … The Niners signed OL Chris Hubbard to the practice squad and released DL Jonathan Garvin.