49ers $38 Million Superstar Named Team’s ‘Most Disappointing’ Player
In a year where the San Francisco 49ers offense has battled instability at quarterback and multiple injuries to its primary playmakers, running back Christian McCaffrey has stepped up.
CMC currently leads the NFL in total yards from scrimmage (981), and is also first in touches (185). Despite his heavy workload, some aren’t keen on what they’re seeing from McCaffrey this season.
Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon listed each team’s “most disappointing” player, and for the Niners, he named CMC.
“While the three-time Pro Bowler has at least remained healthy as the rest of the roster crumbles, he’s averaging a career-low 3.5 yards per carry,” Gagnon wrote on October 23, adding: “That said, he carried the team to victory in Week 7. Again, I’m just trying to avoid going after injured guys, but Brandon Aiyuk would also be an acceptable answer here.”
Is Christian McCaffrey the San Francisco 49ers’ Most Disappointing Player so Far in 2025?
Put simply, saying McCaffrey is the team’s biggest disappointment is nonsense. We’d argue McCaffrey remains the team’s most reliable all-purpose player. Despite his 3.5 yards per carry average being low, he has 465 yards on the ground, and he also leads the team in receptions (53) and receiving yards (516). His dual-threat role alone would make him indispensable for
Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan has heard the talk about his All-Pro running back not playing up to the expectations of others.
“I don’t know what he listens to or not,” Shanahan said on October 22. “I know Christian has a high standard, what he expects to do running the ball. I do personally, I know our whole team does. So, not getting the production that we would like these first five weeks I think had us all pissed off. I’m not saying we were pissed off, that’s why we did it well in Week 6. We try our hardest every week. But yeah, when we’re not running the ball well, no one’s happy around here, especially Christian.”
49ers Currently Have Top 10 Offense, Passing Game
The 49ers offense is currently ranked sixth in the NFL in total yards per game (366.6), and the unit is ranked No. 1 in most passing yards per game (271.3). McCaffrey’s versatility is a big reason for that.
Moreover, McCaffrey, who is on a $38 million deal, entered 2025 fully healthy after the injury-plagued 2024 season that limited him to just four games. Thus, selecting him as “most disappointing” feels just wrong.
If one sought a better candidate on the 49ers roster more worthy of the “most disappointing” tag, there are stronger contenders. The absence of Aiyuk looms especially large—his injury and delayed return significantly impacted the receiver room and thrust even more burden onto McCaffrey. Quarterback Brock Purdy also hasn’t been able to stay on the field, and rookie defensive lineman Mykel Williams has yet to make much of an impression for a first-rounder.
All are better candidates for the label than McCaffrey. It’d be totally fair to say CMC might be under-celebrated in his role this season, but calling him disappointing after all he’s done is silly.
Brian Callahan Postmortem: A decision forced on former coach made the Titans worse before his firing
When Brian Callahan had play calling taken away from him after just three weeks this season, the writing was on the wall. His firing felt like a question of when, not if. And it wasn’t but three more weeks of his leadership before Amy Adams Strunk sent him packing, just 23 games into his tenure as head coach.
QB coach Bo Hardegree has been calling plays since Week 4. This change was billed at the time as a move that would enable everybody to do their jobs better. Callahan could focus on game management duties and oversee the entire operation. And Hardegree’s experience calling plays for the Raiders a couple years back looked like something that could spark some life for the Titans offense.
In hindsight, it hasn’t. The Titans' offensive production has gone down in the wake of this change, and it’s happened against lesser opponents. Here’s where we stand nearly two months in:
Taking play calling from Brian Callahan was always a mistake
I wrote about this decision back when it was made, lamenting it as shortsighted change for the sake of change. Now a month later, the numbers back this up.
The Titans’ first three games, in which Callahan called plays, were against the now 5-2 Broncos, 5-2 Rams, and 6-1 Colts. Today, Denver and Los Angeles are first and second in the league in sack efficiency. They’re also both top five on third downs. And the Colts have turned out to be the juggernaut the league didn’t see coming. But all of that is to say, we knew somewhat then and certainly know now how difficult that start was.
The Titans averaged a pedestrian 17 points per game in those contests. It was certainly nothing to write home about, even against tough teams. Then play calling duties were changed, and things got demonstrably worse.
The Titans offense has averaged 11.25 points per game in the month since the switch. They’ve been shut out in a full half of football in three of their four outings. One of the precious few touchdowns they’ve managed in this span was the interception-fumble-touchdown miracle in Arizona.
I’m not here to tell you Callahan was the solution. But I am here to seriously question if the current setup with Hardegree is a suitable answer. I’m not reactionary enough to think he can’t improve as a play caller down the stretch of the season, and I expect he’ll be given that opportunity. But it seems utterly clear to me today what felt right at the time of the change: this was pointless move. It didn’t serve the team. It just served those desperate to see a switch, and the result has been worse offensive output against worse football teams. 17ppg against the Broncos, Rams, and Colts sure as heck beats 11.25ppg against the Texans, Cardinals, Raiders, and Patriots.
The truth is that the Titans have six (6) drives to hang their hats on offensively since the switch. That’s it. The final three drives in the Arizona comeback game, and the first three drives in the eventual Patriots stomping last weekend. Both outbursts of actual offensive life were promptly proven to be fleeting. Inconsequential blips on the big picture radar. Hardegree and the rest of this remaining offensive group, coaches and players alike, simply have to show better than they have since Callahan’s decision-making was taken out of play. Because so far, they’ve gone in the wrong direction.
