49ers' Juszczyk Says 'Incredible' Christian McCaffrey Looks 'Healthy' and 'Explosive'

Add Kyle Juszczyk to the chorus of people very impressed with how Christian McCaffrey has looked during offseason activities for the San Francisco 49ers.

Speaking to The Athletic's Vic Tafur, Juszczyk said McCaffrey looks "healthy" and "explosive" coming off a lost season in 2024.

"Christian is arguably the best player in the NFL. He was the offensive player of the year two years ago. He changes everything, and he looks incredible. He looks so healthy, he looks so explosive," said Juszczyk.

McCaffrey's 2024 was a perfect representation for everything that went wrong for the 49ers last season. He suffered a calf strain early in training camp that wound up keeping him out for the first eight weeks.

The Niners activated McCaffrey off injured reserve prior to Week 10. He did have more than 100 yards from scrimmage in each of his first two games, but the explosiveness that helped make him so dominant in 2023 was gone.

McCaffrey's season came to an end when he suffered a PCL injury against the Buffalo Bills in Week 13.

Per NFL Next Gen Stats (h/t ESPN's Ben Solak), McCaffrey's max speed in each of the four games he played was 16.4, 16.7, 16.1 and 17.4 mph. Solak noted the speed of 17.4 mph would have been McCaffrey's fifth-worst in a game during the 2023 season when he won Offensive Player of the Year.

Having had a full offseason to recover, Juszczyk's comments echo a lot of the sentiments around McCaffrey. Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak told reporters in June after mandatory minicamp that McCaffrey looked "awesome."

"Christian is as ready as any player I've ever been around," head coach Kyle Shanahan said in May. "Right now, he's healthy as can be. We've got to kind of protect him from himself, but Christian has a good idea of what he needs to do right now."

Given all of the changes to San Francisco's roster this offseason, particularly the defense, there will likely be a lot of pressure on the offense to perform while many of the new defensive faces get acclimated.

The 49ers have plenty of pieces in place on offense to get back to being an elite offense. Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Trent Williams, Jauan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall and Brandon Aiyuk—who could miss the start of the season recovering from a torn ACL and MCL—is a good foundation to work with.

McCaffrey is the great wild card in the entire equation. The 49ers were one of the best offenses in NFL history by DVOA during the 2023 season with a healthy McCaffrey.

If the 49ers can get anything close to that version of McCaffrey, who led the NFL with 2,023 yards from scrimmage and 21 total touchdowns, they should be a playoff contender in the NFC.