By NFL rule, the 49ers should have let the league know what the status of injured running back Christian McCaffrey would be before the weekend. The team apparently thought that McCaffrey might be ready to go on Monday night against the Jets, and did not rule him out until about an hour-and-a-half before kickoff of their Week 1 opener.
Or did they?
With McCaffrey dealing with a persistent injury to his calf and Achilles tendon, his replacement—third-year running back Jordan Mason—told Lisa Salters on the Monday Night Football broadcast after the game that he’d known for a while that he was starting.
“When did I find out?” Mason said, repeating Salters’ question. “Maybe Friday, Friday night, you know, something like that.”
Mason handled the role well, no doubt, going for a career-high 147 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries. But what Mason may not have known in his chat with Salters was that he might have gotten the 49ers in a bit of hot water.
49ers ‘Never Told Jordan (Mason) He Was Going to Start’
That’s because, if the 49ers knew on Friday that McCaffrey would not be able to go, but did not report it to the league, both the team and coach Kyle Shanahan will be subject to a fine from the NFL office. Knowing that, it appeared that Shanahan tried to walk back Mason’s comments, saying that if Mason had gotten a message that he would be the starter, it had not come from Shanahan.
“I never told Jordan he was going to start,” Shanahan said, via the team website’s video stream. “I told him he had to be ready a bunch but that might have been Bobby or somebody trying to pump him up. But I knew he was going to have to play a lot. I told him it was not going to be like usual. He was going to be like a No. 2 back that was splitting a lot of the time. But he did not know for sure he was doing that until today.”
When he got to the podium, after the Salters interview, Mason seemed to point a finger at the media for even asking the question. That’s a bit silly—it is only natural to ask when he found out during the week about getting the starting job, and if the 49ers did nothing wrong, there would be nothing to be defensive about.
“That question right there is why I’m mad,” he said. “That’s why I don’t like really talking to the media. You say one thing wrong and … I don’t know, just skip that question.”
During his on-field postgame Jordan Mason said he found out he was starting on Friday, but the #49ers disclosed CMC was OUT an hour before kickoff.
Jordan was pissed when again asked about it in his postgame presser. Kyle Shanahan vehemently denied it.#NFL will look into this. pic.twitter.com/8ryGSU6Fhh— uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) September 10, 2024
Christian McCaffrey Still Uncertain for Week 2
Shanahan insisted that McCaffrey was, in fact, in line to be the starter until just before game time. He said the reason he sat was because of the injuries he’d been dealing with for a while now.
“Same stuff that was bothering him all week,” Shanahan said. “There was a little too much today. Gametime decision. He came in, talking to him about it, it was still there. Thought it would be smart to keep him out. Glad we did.”
If the 49ers are fined for some duplicity when it comes to McCaffrey, the penalty is likely to be a slap on the wrist, and the team will move on from there to face Minnesota in Week 2. Whether McCaffrey will be ready for that one, too, is anyone’s guess.
“That’s amazing, that person must be God,” Shanahan said. “We just found out that he wasn’t playing today and I have no idea how he’s gonna feel tomorrow, or the next day. I thought he was playing this whole week, until today. So I don’t know who knows he is not playing next week.”
