The San Francisco 49ers closed the preseason Thursday night with an 18-12 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, then followed it up Friday with a major piece of good news for Christian McCaffrey.
After sitting out all of San Francisco’s preseason games because of general muscle tightness, McCaffrey got a notable leaguewide nod as the NFL and the 49ers announced that players ranked him No. 6 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026. The list is voted on by NFL players and largely reflects what they did the previous season.
San Francisco kept the reaction simple online. “Nobody does it like CMC,” the team posted.
McCaffrey had every reason to land that high on the list. He played all 17 games in 2025 and turned in one of the best seasons of his career, carrying 311 times for 1,202 yards and 10 touchdowns while also catching 102 passes for 924 yards and seven touchdowns. That added up to 2,126 total scrimmage yards, second-most in the NFL behind Bijan Robinson.
The awards followed, too. McCaffrey earned Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro honors and was named the 2025 AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
The 49ers have leaned on him heavily since acquiring him from the Carolina Panthers during the 2022 season. Carolina originally drafted him No. 8 overall out of Stanford in the 2017 NFL Draft. In 112 career games, McCaffrey has rushed 1,658 times for 7,589 yards and 62 touchdowns, and he has added 626 receptions for 5,390 yards and 36 touchdowns.
With the preseason in the books, San Francisco now shifts to the regular season. The 49ers will open Sept. 10 in Australia against the Los Angeles Rams in a primetime matchup.
In Other News...
49ers Final Cuts Put Several Bubble Players In A Tough Spot
As the 49ers moved toward the 53-man cutdown, the final roster math left a handful of bubble players in uncomfortable territory. The evaluation around Hobbs, Robinson, Luter and Dugger has been tied not just to their preseason work, but to the bigger picture of injuries, depth and how the team wants to sort out the back end of the roster.
Dugger stands out as one of the more intriguing names in the mix because of his background, versatility and the possibility that he could carve out a role at linebacker. For San Francisco, the question is less about whether these players have shown enough to stay in the conversation and more about whether there is enough room for all of them once the roster is trimmed and the depth chart is finalized. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Already Have A Trent Williams Successor Debate Brewing
The long view at left tackle is already coming into focus for the 49ers, and ESPN analyst Jordan Reid helped put a name to the conversation by sliding Stanfords Niki Prongos into his 2027 NFL Mock Draft as a possible successor to Trent Williams. Prongos is still very much a projection, but the intrigue is obvious for a team that has leaned on Williams for years and now has to think about how it eventually handles one of the most important spots on the line.
Reids take paints Prongos as the kind of raw, high-upside prospect NFL teams love to track early, with the size and athleticism that fit the position and the technique still needing polish before he can be viewed as a true first-round caliber player. For the 49ers, the appeal is less about the mock itself than the broader reality underneath it: Williams is getting older, and the next chapter at left tackle may already be taking shape just across the Bay in college football. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Face A George Kittle Decision They Can't Rush
George Kittle is back on the field in a limited way after the Achilles tear he suffered in January, and that alone gives the 49ers a welcome hint of progress as they inch toward the start of the season. Activated from the PUP list, he has taken part in practice, but only in a restricted capacity, leaving San Francisco to balance the obvious value of getting its top tight end moving again with the reality that recovery timelines do not always bend for opening week.
Kyle Shanahan has made it clear the team is not about to force the issue, even with a season opener in Australia against the Rams looming. Kittle still has not joined full team drills, and Shanahan has framed the situation alongside other injured 49ers such as Mykel Williams and Nick Bosa, a reminder that San Francisco is trying to protect more than one important piece as it sorts out who is truly ready for Week 1 and who still needs more time. [Read more 🡒]