Week 1 brings a million fantasy football questions. One of my favorites is figuring out how a team’s backup running back situation is actually playing out. After much preseason speculation, Week 1 confirmed the San Francisco 49ers’ RB pecking order — Kaelon Black is the clear backup to Christian McCaffrey. After Black’s big week against the Los Angeles Rams, can we trust him as a starting fantasy option with McCaffrey healthy?
49ers RB split vs. Rams in Week 1
Not only did Black make his claim on the RB2 job known, but he did it in a big way. The rookie out of Indiana carried the ball 14 times for 65 yards while catching one pass for five yards. He and McCaffrey ended up with the same number of touches, which was not the expectation at all; McCaffrey is one of the league’s most prolific workhorses. And yet, head coach Kyle Shanahan trusted Black enough to hand him starter-level touches. On the surface, that seems like he’s more than a handcuff.
It wasn’t just the game script that got Black extra touches; Shanahan involved him from the jump. Let’s look at the split touches/targets by drive.
- Drive 1: McCaffrey 2, Black 2
- Drive 2: McCaffrey 1, Black 1
- Drive 3: McCaffrey 2, Black 0
- Drive 4: McCaffrey 1, Black 5
- Drive 5: McCaffrey 3, Black 0
- Drive 6: McCaffrey 3, Black 1
- Drive 7: McCaffrey 2, Black 2
- Drive 8: McCaffrey 1, Black 2
- Drive 9: McCaffrey 3, Black 2
For context, the seventh drive was when San Francisco went up 24-7 in the fourth quarter and effectively secured the win. Until then, touches were dead even, 11 to 11. This makes the case for Black awfully interesting.
Here’s what we know for sure: Black is the backup, has the coaching staff’s trust, and can be effective on an NFL field. But to figure out whether or not he’s viable as a starter, we have to look at the history of running backs under Shanahan.
Christian McCaffrey Backup RB History
Christian McCaffrey has two full seasons as the 49ers’ locked-in RB1. In 2023, McCaffrey carried the ball 272 times for 1,459 yards; his backup, Elijah Mitchell, carried it 75 times for 281 yards. Jordan Mason, now a Vikings starter, ran the ball 40 times for 206 yards. With no notable involvement in the passing game, neither backup had standalone fantasy value.
After an injury-plagued 2024 campaign, McCaffrey returned to form in 2025. He shouldered a whopping 311 carries and 102 catches, redefining the term “workhorse”. Brian Robinson Jr., whom the 49ers acquired as his backup after trading Jordan Mason, carried the ball 92 times for 400 yards while catching only eight passes. That was 3.7 PPR points per game, placing Robinson 63rd among all running backs.
In short, McCaffrey’s San Francisco backups have had no real precedent for standalone value. So we have to ask: is Black the guy to break the mold?
My gut tells me no. San Francisco had extenuating circumstances in Week 1, playing all the way down in Melbourne, Australia. McCaffrey, who sat out much of the preseason and training camp to manage his tight calf, likely couldn’t handle a full workload regardless of the game script, especially with such a jarring shift in location and time zones. It’s also possible that Shanahan wanted fresh runners against a Rams team that big-brained their travel plans and looked awfully slow. There are plenty of reasons to believe the 50/50 touch split was a fluke.
But this performance still boosts Black’s stock tremendously. If McCaffrey misses time, Black looks like an easy RB2 option with real RB1 upside. I wouldn’t go so far as to start him in Week 2 against the Dolphins in anything but the deepest of leagues. But the future is bright for San Francisco’s rookie, and he looks like an elite bench stash in all formats.
