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There has been a lot of speculation surrounding Christian McCaffrey’s return to the field by the San Francisco 49ers. Some believed the top playmaker could return as early as Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. That won’t happen, however, as McCaffrey remains on injured reserve and the 49ers have yet to open his practice window.

It now seems likely that the 49ers will wait until after the bye week before ramping up McCaffrey’s activity. They hope to have him available for the second half of the season.

General manager John Lynch discussed McCaffrey’s status during a Friday morning appearance on Bay Area radio station KNBR.

“No new updates other than he’s doing incredibly well,” Lynch said. “It’s all about ramping up, increasing activity and making sure there are no setbacks. I could just tell people he’s on the right track with that. No timelines or anything, but he’s doing a little bit more, not every day. We spread it out a bit, work hard one day, go into more of a (regeneration) day the next.

“But if you can stack those up and not have any setbacks, that’s a good thing, and that’s kind of the direction he’s going.”

Jordan Mason is making progress

Jordan Mason has done an admirable job filling in for McCaffrey. Unfortunately, he suffered an AC joint sprain last week against the Seattle Seahawks. Although Mason has had limited practice this week, his condition is improving.

“JP’s (Mason) has been here this week in a blue jersey that basically tells everyone, ‘Stay away, don’t touch him,’” Lynch said. “He’s a tough guy. I think it’s a good omen that he’s been here, but we’ve got to make sure he comes in on Sunday and feels comfortable with contact and all that. But JP is tough, and I’m betting on it … Hopefully JP will be there for us.”

On Thursday, head coach Kyle Shanahan also expressed optimism about Mason’s availability for this weekend’s game against the Chiefs.

“He’s doing well,” Shanahan said. “We stayed away from him all week so we can’t hurt him or make it worse. Put him in a blue jersey so no one hits him too hard. He’s doing fine. He’s had something like this before , So I think he will be good on Sunday.”

You can listen to Lynch’s entire interview below.

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