49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is staying neutral when it comes to the race for this season’s MVP award.
Shanahan is doing so because he doesn’t want to throw his support behind either of the contenders on his team. Quarterback Brock Purdy and running back Christian McCaffrey have both garnered support as candidates for the award and Shanahan spent some time on Wednesday explaining why he thinks both players would be worthy recipients come the end of the season.
“That’s the only reason I wouldn’t overly comment on either one of them because I don’t want them to cancel each other out,” Shanahan said, via 49ersWebzone.com. “But if any non-quarterback is going to get an MVP, I don’t get how Christian McCaffrey can’t. I mean, he’s amazing in what he’s done all year. If it’s going to a quarterback, then I don’t have to talk about Christian. I can talk about our quarterback. And if his numbers is all you see, then I think that solves it up. But if you watch the film, then it makes it even stronger, which to me is the most important thing.”
The history of the MVP award points to Purdy being the stronger contender of the two 49ers, but the nice thing for Shanahan is that having two candidates on the same offense makes it a lot more likely that the entire team will be able to celebrate at the end of the season.
