Washington returns

49ers running back Christian McCaffrey missed practice again Tuesday. Offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak attributed McCaffrey’s absence on Monday to tightness, with nothing more specific.

Coach Kyle Shanahan, though, said he is not concerned by McCaffrey’s current setback.

“No,” Shanahan said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “My concern would be him toughing through tightness, like a lot of people do, and then hurting something bad, and then pulling something, which then, it could be a month. That would be our concern, so once we hear him talking a certain way, Christian’s a guy who needs to get prepared for Week 1."

As the story points out, the concern is McCaffrey had calf tightness during the 2024 training camp that carried into the season. He played only four games with what was later announced as Achilles tendinitis and a separate injury to his posterior collateral ligament. There is no reason to panic just yet, but it's easy to understand why fantasy owners may be paying close attention to this situation. CMC is 30 and led the league last year with 413 touches.

Rams WR Puka Nacua, who left practice while walking with a trainer, is dealing with minor soreness in his groin, I'm told. The team is just being cautious.

Looks like Matthew Stafford was right. The Rams will likely make sure Puka is back to full strength, so owners shouldn't be shocked if he's a non-participant in practices - especially the joint ones the Rams are doing with the Cowboys.

Matthew Stafford is neither a trainer nor a doctor. But as a quarterback entering his 18th pro season, he has an idea of what a serious injury looks like.

“I did not [see what happened to Puka Nacua],” Stafford said, via Lindsey Thiry of ESPN. “I’m not really sure what the issue was, but nobody ran up to me in a panic, so I don’t think it was anything too major.”

The story said head coach Sean McVay did not have a real update on why Nacua left Tuesday’s joint practice with the Cowboys either. While we know we can really ever trust players with any kind of injury information, especially their own, it's at least maybe a good sign Stafford came out and said he didn't think the injury was serious. But, we'll keep monitoring it and provide any updates.