This is not going to be about how the San Francisco 49ers running back doesn't change games. He does. He is an elite talent, and he has absolutely had some grand success against the Seattle Seahawks. 100-yard rushing games against Seattle seem easy for McCaffrey.
What has caused McCaffrey to be ineffective at times against every team is his lack of availability. When he plays, he is a perfect fit in 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan's system, and McCaffrey proved with the Carolina Panthers that he can be great in any system.
But the Seahawks were unlikely to change anything defensively, whether McCaffrey played in Week 1 or not. The running back showed up on Thursday's injury report with a calf injury. He didn't miss practice, but he was limited.
Seattle Seahawks were not going to change defensively whether 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey played or not
But Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald has enough faith in his scheme that he was going to run what he ran if McCaffrey played or Bijan Robinson was the featured back. The 49ers recently acquired Robinson, who Shanahan will find a way to turn into a very productive back.
That is what Shanahan's system does. It takes good players and makes them great. In other words, to beat San Francisco, the Seahawks were going to have to stop the San Fran players, of course, but they were going to have to stop the scheme first.
That means getting pressure on quarterback Brock Purdy, but showing a variety of blitzes that slow the run as well. Macdonald isn't just trying to stop Shanahan; Shanahan is trying to find a way to beat Macdonald, too.
Both teams have excellent head coaches who are great at focusing on their side of the ball. The Seattle Seahawks are going to let offensive Klint Kubiak control the offense, but the defense belongs to Macdonald.
The same holds on the 49ers' side. Shanahan is going to run the offense, and defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who is very good at his own job, will run the defense.
Not having Christian McCaffrey would have affected what the 49ers tried to run, but it wasn't going to alter how the Seahawks played defense. Ultimately, the McCaffrey calf injury might have been overblown. His calf injury flared up during practice on Thursday. He is questionable for Week 1, according to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.