The 49ers on Tuesday got a little bit of good news on the Christian McCaffrey front. McCaffrey, according to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, is in the team’s facility for the start of mandatory minicamp after missing the voluntary portion of OTAs.
Whether McCaffrey participates in the workouts remains to be seen. It’s unclear why he was absent from OTAs, although the speculation is that he’s aiming for a new contract that will add some long-term security and kick in extra money for the reigning Offensive Player of the Year.
He may also have just been working out on his own through the voluntary portion of the offseason before jumping into the only mandatory session before training camp begins in late July.
Now we await word on wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk who also skipped OTAs while seeking a long-term contract extension. Even if he’s in the facility for the mandatory practices it’s hard to imagine he’d take the field before signing a new deal.
For now though McCaffrey’s attendance is a good sign that the 49ers won’t have two sticky contract negotiations to work through before training camp.
