Christian McCaffrey just hit another rare benchmark, and it came in a game the San Francisco 49ers badly needed. The 49ers running back crossed 2,000 yards from scrimmage for the third time in his NFL career during Sunday night’s 42-38 win over the Chicago Bears, putting him at 2,069 total yards with one regular-season game left.
McCaffrey powered that milestone with a big all-around night: 140 rushing yards plus 41 receiving yards (181 total), along with a touchdown as the 49ers survived a back-and-forth shootout at Levi’s Stadium.
McCaffrey’s 2,000-yard season puts him in tiny company
According to Pro Football Talk, McCaffrey has now topped 2,000 yards from scrimmage in 2025 (2,069), after previously doing it in 2023 (2,023) and 2019 (2,392).
That’s a short list of players who have reached that number even once, and an even shorter list who have done it multiple times.
PFT noted the only players with more 2,000-yard-from-scrimmage seasons than McCaffrey are Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk, Eric Dickerson, and Walter Payton, each of whom did it four times.
In other words: McCaffrey isn’t just piling up stats. He’s stacking seasons that show up in the “all-time” bins.
McCaffrey’s milestone also landed at a moment when San Francisco’s ground game is clearly rounding into shape late in the season. “It’s 11 guys just committing to it,” McCaffrey said after the Bears win, crediting the offensive line for “opening up lanes” and noting Brock Purdy’s bootlegs have “putting a lot of pressure on defenses.”
For the year, McCaffrey entered Week 18 with 1,179 rushing yards and 10 rushing TDs, plus 96 catches for 890 yards and seven receiving TDs, putting him in rare historical territory, including a benchmark club that includes LaDainian Tomlinson for multiple 2,000-yard/15-TD type seasons.
And this isn’t new territory for him: he was the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year for the 2023 season, has multiple AP All-Pro nods, joined the 1,000 rushing/1,000 receiving club in 2019, and set the RB reception record with 116 catches that year.
What it means for the 49ers heading into Week 18
The timing matters, too. The 49ers didn’t just win a fun game; the result carried real postseason weight.
The win moved San Francisco to 12-4, and the 49ers can still play for the NFC’s top seed with a Week 18 win. The 49ers will host the 13-3 Seattle Seahawks on January 2 in primetime.
For San Francisco, that puts even more focus on how Kyle Shanahan manages McCaffrey’s workload in the regular-season finale. The 49ers want the benchmark, but they’ll want the healthiest version of McCaffrey even more once the playoffs start. It also becomes more important given the recent absence of George Kittle. If Kittle is unable to play against the Seahawks in Week 18, Shanahan will have to especially balance how much additional work to give McCaffrey as the 49ers chase the No. 1 seed.
McCaffrey vs. Bijan Robinson: the scrimmage-yards race is real
There’s also a league-wide wrinkle that makes this feel even more “right now.”
PFT reported McCaffrey is battling Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson for the NFL lead in yards from scrimmage, with Robinson at 2,026 heading into his game against the Rams.
That sets up a clean Week 18 storyline: Can McCaffrey finish the season as the league’s scrimmage-yards leader, and help the 49ers win an ultra-competitive NFC West, and add another “top of the NFL” line to a season that’s already historically efficient?
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post 49ers Get Historic Christian McCaffrey Milestone After Bears Thriller appeared first on Heavy Sports.