A year after a bitterly disappointing 6-11 season, the San Francisco 49ers head into the season's final stretch at 9-4, which not only has them firmly in the mix for a postseason spot but gives them a reasonable chance at winning the NFC West and even earning the No. 1 seed in the conference. While the 49ers have had several heroes in the 2025 season, there's only one choice for the team MVP.
Christian McCaffrey.
McCaffrey has many accomplishments this season that make him the team's MVP, which we'll get to. But before looking at this year, let's look back at 2024.
While a lot went wrong for the 49ers in 2024, McCaffrey missing all but four games tops the list. The team went 6-11 overall and 5-8 in games without McCaffrey. San Francisco sustained plenty of key injuries in 2024. That said, the 49ers got 15 games out of Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel, seven games from Brandon Aiyuk, 15 from Nick Bosa and 17 from Fred Warner. In 2025, Purdy has missed 8 games while Kittle has missed 5. Samuel is gone and Aiyuk has yet to (and probably won't) play a game. On defense, Bosa and Warner are both out with season-ending injuries, suffered in Weeks 3 and 6, respectively.
As bad as 2024 was for the 49ers, 2025 should be going worse. Certainly, McCaffrey isn't the only reason for that (Mac Jones deserves a lot of praise), but when we see how much the 49ers have relied on McCaffrey, his value is undeniable.
McCaffrey has 237 carries for 849 yards with eight rushing touchdowns. As would be expected, those totals all easily lead the team, as Brian Robinson Jr. Is second in all three categories with 72 carries for 328 yards with two touchdowns. But as a receiver, McCaffrey has also caught 85 passes for 806 yards with five touchdowns. The reception and yardage totals both easily lead the team (Jauan Jennings and Kendrick Bourne are second in receptions and yards, respectively, with 41 and 482). The five touchdown catches are tied for the most with Jennings and Kittle.
That puts McCaffrey on pace for 1,110 rushing yards, 10 rushing touchdowns, 111 receptions, 1,054 receiving yards and seven catching touchdowns. As a reminder, the 1,000/1,000 club consists of Roger Craig (1985), Marshall Faulk (1999) and McCaffrey (2019). Running backs with 100 receptions in a season are Larry Centers (1995), LaDanian Tomlinson (2003), Matt Forte (2014), McCaffrey (2018 and 2019) and Austin Ekeler (2022).
Sure, there are things to pick apart. McCaffrey's 3.6 yards-per-carry average is unimpressive. That said, anyone who saw the state of San Francisco's offensive line in the early part of the season would completely understand that total. In fact, anyone who saw the state of San Francisco's offensive line in the early part of the season might wonder how McCaffrey managed even 3.6 yards per attempt.
McCaffrey's versatility has masked a lot of the team's other issues. Given where the 49ers stand, despite all that has gone wrong for them, there's a reasonable argument to be made that McCaffrey should be the MVP of the league. Of course, that's largely a quarterback award and there are other quality candidates.
But San Francisco's MVP? That's as easy as CMC.