SANTA CLARA — Christian McCaffrey is drawing a lot of attention as he zeroes in on becoming the first player in NFL history to have two seasons with 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards receiving.

But his true importance to the 49ers is as basic as it gets.

CMC scores touchdowns. Lots of them.

Not that he’s overly interested in recounting his unparalleled ability to cross the goal line.

“I just take one game at a time,” McCaffrey said Wednesday as the 49ers (9-4) began preparations to host the Tennessee Titans in Week 15 at Levi’s Stadium (Fox, 1:05 p.m.) “You never know what can happen in a game. For me it’s just about seeing it, hitting it and seeing what happens.”

Chances are pretty good it will happen again Sunday for McCaffrey. In the 49ers’ 26-8 win over Cleveland before the bye, McCaffrey opened the scoring with a 1-yard run. It was his 13th touchdown of the season. Including the playoffs, McCaffrey has played 50 games for the 49ers and scored 52 touchdowns.

Nobody in franchise history — not even all-time NFL touchdown leader Jerry Rice with 208 — has averaged more than a touchdown per game in their first 50 games. In Rice’s first 50 games with the 49ers under Bill Walsh, including the playoffs, he scored 41 touchdowns.

McCaffrey, of course, arrived as a veteran. He had played in 64 regular season games and one playoff game, scoring 51 touchdowns, when he was acquired via trade from the Carolina Panthers in 2021. Throw in 31 touchdowns in three seasons at Stanford and a Colorado state record 141 touchdowns in four seasons at Valor Christian High, and McCaffrey has scored 275 touchdowns — not including what he did with the Cherry Creek Bruins in youth football.

Is it any wonder the 49ers struggled in the red zone in going 6-11 last season when McCaffrey was limited to four games (and no touchdowns) with bilateral Achilles tendinitis and a PCL strain?

“He’s always had a nose for the end zone and he’s enabled offensive coordinators to do a larger array of things, put him different spots, to help get high touchdown numbers,” 49ers left tackle Trent Williams said.

Christian McCaffrey leaves the field after the 49ers’ Monday night win over Carolina on Nov. 24. Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group

Even when someone else does the scoring. In the win over the Browns, Cleveland’s defense was so fixated on McCaffrey on a zone read that quarterback Brock Purdy walked into the end zone with a score that helped put the game away.

Long a devotee of using running backs by committee as his father Mike Shanahan had done with the Denver Broncos, Kyle Shanahan had five different leading rushers in five seasons — Carlos Hyde, Matt Breida, Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson Jr. and Elijah Mitchell — before McCaffrey came aboard. Most were in a shared-backfield arrangement.

After getting his feet wet on short notice against Kansas City, Shanahan unleashed his newest toy on Oct. 23, 2022 on the Los Angeles Rams — who were trying just as hard as the 49ers to acquire McCaffrey by trade. Shanahan showed the Rams and coach Sean McVay what they were missing.

Before he scored a touchdown, McCaffrey threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Aiyuk on a halfback option. His first touchdown came on a 9-yard reception from Jimmy Garoppolo and his first rushing touchdown was on a 1-yard run.

Other than having last season essentially wiped out because of injury, Shanahan discarded the committee approach simply because McCaffrey is so adept at doing so many things and ending up in the end zone.

McCaffrey stays on the field because his running and receiving help the 49ers get to the red zone. Then he stays in to finish the deal because even though he’s not your typical line-smasher in goal line situations at 5-foot-11 and 210 pounds, he’s got a dozen 1-yard touchdown runs with the 49ers.

“He is really good at finding the open hole,” Shanahan said. “He’s got an elite vision and it’s hard to create creases down there but if you can, he usually finds it. That’s what he does best.”

With four games to play, McCaffrey has 323 career touches with 849 yards rushing and 806 receiving, McCaffrey is on pace for 1,110 yards rushing and 1,054 receiving over 17 games. He sidesteps the statistical talk much as he does defenders, preferring the old school “one carry at a time, one catch at a time, one game at a time approach.

Williams, for one, is hoping he gets has his second 1,000-1,000 season, setting him apart from Marshall Faulk (1999) and the 49ers’ Roger Craig (1985) as the only ones to have done it.

“I mean, that would be huge, just more so for Christian, continuing to write the history books as a transcendental talent,” Williams said.

A breakdown of McCaffrey’s 52 touchdowns with the 49ers through 50 games including playoffs:

Regular-season/playoff rushing touchdowns: 34

Regular-season/playoff receiving touchdowns: 18

Regular-season/playoff red zone touchdowns: 43

Longest TD run: 65 yards vs. Pittsburgh on Sept. 10, 2023

Longest TD reception: 41 yards from Brock Purdy vs. Arizona, Dec. 17, 2023

Shortest TD run: 1 yard (12 times)

Shortest TD reception: 1 yard from Mac Jones vs. L.A. Rams, Nov. 2, 2025

**TD receptions by quarterback: **Brock Purdy 14, Mac Jones 3, Jimmy Garoppolo 1, Jauan Jennings 1

**Most TDs in a season: **23