NFC Notes: Christian McCaffrey, Kyler Murray, 49ers, Cardinals, Rams

49ers

San Francisco is waiting for RB Christian McCaffrey to return from injured reserve with a calf injury. 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan outlined their plan to get him back but mentioned they are prioritizing his long-term health.

“I think we’ll get a better idea here over the next couple of weeks,” Shanahan said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “The whole point of putting him on IR is to guarantee that we couldn’t do anything for at least four weeks, and two weeks into it, the whole point was just to rest him for two weeks and not do that.”

“And now, we’re going to start hitting the rehab harder and trying to get him back into football stuff and see how it responds. So we’ll see how he responds here. We’ve let him rest here for a couple of weeks.”

Shanahan commented on McCaffrey seeing a specialist in Germany for his injury.

“Christian’s just seeing every specialist he can, doing all the little stuff that Christian does more than anybody I’ve ever been around. He is of full-time commitment to everything for his body year-round. And so, he’s been doing that stuff while not pushing it hard in rehab.”

Cardinals

Cardinals QB Kyler Murray had his first healthy offseason with HC Jonathan Gannon to get comfortable in a new system. Gannon is excited about Murray’s play so far and his ability to lead the team going forward.

“At the end of last year I thought you could see the confidence getting back in the knee as he made a bunch of plays and played really well, and he’s played great this season,” Kingsbury said, via Damon Allred of ArizonaSports.com. “They’re a couple plays away from being undefeated. You see the speed, the quickness. The competitive nature is there. It’s been great to see the guy I basically banked my entire career on what he would be and I still believe in it. It’s cool to see him playing as well as he is.”

• Gannon isn’t ready to commit to first-round DL Darius Robinson returning next week despite him being eligible to come off injured reserve. (Darren Urban)

Rams

Rams HC Sean McVay had high praise of WR Tutu Atwell for performing well in key situations, including a pair of third-down conversions. 

“He’s done a good job with that,” McVay said, via RamsWire. “A couple of key third downs that he made catches on, obviously the deep ball on our sideline was a great track over his shoulder. I think he ended up with 93 yards on the day, but he had a 48-yard ‘PI’ that doesn’t go on the stats, but it moved our offense forward 48 yards that led to a scoring drive. There is a lot of trust. I think he and Matthew have a good trust. He did a lot of really good things for us last year and let’s see if we can build on that. Tutu made some big plays for us. He knew that he was going to get an opportunity and he delivered. Again, just happy for him and now let’s see how we move forward the right way.”