Running Back · San Francisco 49ers

Christian McCaffrey

No. 23 · 10th season

New York handed McCaffrey the award the whole season was building toward

There are trophies that feel administrative. And then there are ones that feel like the room already knew.

Christian McCaffrey is a running back who plays every snap like he's trying to prove something — not to anyone else, but in the way that certain players simply cannot coast. That quality is why what happened to his body hit harder than it would have for someone else, and why the people who watched him grind back took notice.

At the 2026 ESPYS in New York City, McCaffrey was named Best Comeback Athlete. The category says it all: not best player, not most impressive — comeback. Someone who had to find their way back to themselves.

That word means something. It means there was a version of things that went wrong, and then a decision to keep going anyway. Whatever that road looked like for McCaffrey, the people who vote on these things decided he had traveled it farther than anyone else.

What happens after you get named the comeback story of the year? You go back to work. That part, at least, seems to suit him fine.

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