AP Comeback Player of the Year Christian McCaffrey, who played in only four games in 2024, powered the 49ers into the playoffs this season with 2,314 scrimmage yards in 19 starts.
Christian McCaffrey was questioned. Has he lost a step? The question was asked regularly during a 2025 offseason blanketed by doubt. McCaffrey, 28 going on 29, had just missed 13 more games due to injuries. Sidelined for 37 since 2020.
The San Francisco 49ers star let folks see to believe.
As the only non-QB among five MVP finalists, McCaffrey was named the AP Comeback Player of the Year, as announced Thursday at the NFL Honors ceremony. The all-purpose running back entered the night as the odds-on favorite to win the redemptive award. His name was certainly not scratched in around this time last year, which McCaffrey called "one of the hardest years of my life" amid a strenuous rehab process.
"This was one of the hardest years of my life (with) everything that happened to me last year," McCaffrey said after the 49ers lost to the Super Bowl-bound Seahawks in the NFC divisional round. "I kind of had to overcome a lot of odds."
A torn posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee ended a 2024 season that had hardly begun, on the other end of bilateral achilles tendinitis that forced him to miss the first eight games. McCaffrey only played in four. Or 3½. As teammates ushered in an unusually early offseason, his ended.
"From the time January 1 happened, I was rehabbing and working my butt off every single day," McCaffrey said. "My wife went through it. There was not a lot of time off."
The annual inquiry to head coach Kyle Shanahan arose on cue. Would the 49ers lighten the load for their workhorse? McCaffrey had already surpassed the single-season mark of 400 touches (playoffs included) twice in his career, after each of which he suffered a health shortfall, and played a combined seven games the following seasons.
Shanahan relied on his All-Pro back this season like he had since the 49ers acquired him in a blockbuster 2022 trade. In return, McCaffrey carried a team again known for its injuries that finished one win shy of the NFC Championship Game.
"This was one of the most impressive seasons by an individual player ever, just in terms of what a warrior and man he is, week in and week out," Shanahan said. "Christian finds a way every week, he commits himself 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to get his body (ready) to go out there and compete."
McCaffrey accrued 450 touches, a new career high, in 2025-26.
"Obviously we're not proud of the way it ended, but when I look back at all the people that helped me out, the people that were with me every step of the way and believed in me when a lot of people didn't," McCaffrey said, "I appreciate that."
His shoulder stinger underlined a 41-6 loss to the Seahawks, a brutal end to an otherwise impressive 49ers effort. McCaffrey suffered the injury early in the game but tried to play through it.
When he was subbed out for the final time, McCaffrey had 2,314 scrimmage yards to his name with 19 starts in a 19-game season.
"I gave everything I had," McCaffrey said.
This article originally published at 49ers' Christian McCaffrey wins AP Comeback Player of the Year: ‘One of the hardest years of my life'.
Category: General Sports
