Almost everything Christian McCaffrey accomplishes on the football field impresses Kyle Shanahan.
Except for one thing.
The 49ers coach was questioned on Thursday regarding McCaffrey’s appearance on the “Manningcast” broadcast of the “Monday Night Football” game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks, where his star running back talked about his hilarious viral flop attempt during San Francisco’s victory over the Eagles in Week 13.
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Shanahan laughed and said, “I saw that.” And I reasoned that was the only thing he struggled with this year. Not the best failure, though. It can’t be that clear.
With an NFL-high 244 carries for 1,292 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground, McCaffrey is having a season worthy of an MVP. In addition, the All-Pro has grabbed 57 out of 68 passes for 509 receiving yards and seven more touchdowns in the air.
Although Brock Purdy was unaware of the flop until it went viral on social media, he concurred with his head coach’s evaluation.
“That’s absolutely true,” Purdy said to NBC Sports Bay Area. “He performs flawlessly, but he is unable to falter. Still, it was funny. What the heck, that’s not very Christian-like, I thought. That sort of thing isn’t typical of him, but it was funny.
The head coach doesn’t want to see flops become the norm, but he isn’t against the odd one here and there because they might help the squad.
You want men to act in that way. After the play, you’re not permitted to contact guys,” Shanahan clarified. Guys sometimes miss it because it happens so quickly, but they can see the reaction. However, you don’t want to make it too quickly resemble the NBA.
Center Like his head coach, Jake Brendel witnessed the flip in real time and concurred that flopping is outside of the running back’s comfort zone.
Naturally, Brendel replied. You can’t act like a tough guy and stiff-arm people in order to accomplish it. However, it’s a positive thing.
McCaffrey would need to put in more effort if the MVP standards included flopping talents.
