"You can want it. You can hope for it. But please, I'm begging you don't expect it. The moment the 49ers traded for running back Brian Robinson Jr., the drumbeat started. From fans, from the media, from anyone with a fantasy football team, the call came for Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan to play Robinson and Christian McCaffrey on the field at the same time. If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times now. And it's starting to give me a headache."
"The logic, as it goes, is that this two-headed monster would solve the 49ers' wide receiver depth issues just flex McCaffrey out to the slot. The argument is that it puts the team's best 11 on the field. But this isn't Madden, folks. Pushing for a Robinson-McCaffrey backfield shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how Shanahan's offense actually works and, more importantly, the specific skill sets of both players."
"So why won't it happen? Let's start with the simplest reason of all: the data. In his 49ers career, Christian McCaffrey has taken 1,504 regular-season snaps. Guess how many of those included another true running back (not fullback Kyle Juszczyk or receiver-in-disguise Deebo Samuel) on the field with him. Fifteen. That's it. That's less than 1 percent. And digging into those 15 snaps 14 in 2023, one in 2022 reveals precisely why a CMC-and-B-Rob backfield will remain fan fiction."
Fans and media propose playing Christian McCaffrey and Brian Robinson Jr. together to mask wide receiver depth and flex McCaffrey to the slot. That proposal misunderstands Kyle Shanahan's offensive structure and the distinct skill sets of both backs. McCaffrey has played 1,504 regular-season 49ers snaps; only 15 included another true running back, fewer than 1 percent. Fourteen of those snaps occurred in 2023 and one in 2022. Shanahan uses two-back personnel as a gimmick package, primarily against defenses that play with no deep safeties, in red-zone situations, or against chaos-oriented schemes.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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