49ers OT Trent Williams' perfect reaction to Christian McCaffrey practice return

The San Francisco 49ers finally have running back Christian McCaffrey back on the practice field after missing the season's first eight games. Coming off their Week 9 bye, San Francisco is back to prepare for their Week 10 opponent, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Offensive tackle Trent Williams said it felt amazing to see McCaffrey return to the practice field, per David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone.

"Such an amazing feeling to see that '2-3' out there doing his extensive warmup," Williams told reporters after practice. "A million high knees he does before practice, it was great seeing him."

"Offensive Player of the Year," Williams referencing the award McCaffrey earned last season. "Really, you could probably put him in any offense, it's going to make it better. Obviously, our offense is kind of tailor-made to him and some of his strengths, so it's definitely going to be a tremendous lift for us."

Williams, a 14-year veteran and three-time first-team All-Pro, has been with the 49ers since 2020 after spending his first nine seasons in Washington.

The up-and-down 49ers have yet to string together wins this season. They're coming off a 30-24 Week 8 win over the Dallas Cowboys and despite their underwhelming 4-4 record, they're still in the mix in the NFC West. The divisional standings are a logjam, with Arizona at 5-4, Los Angeles and San Francisco at 4-4 and Seattle at 4-5.

Although McCaffrey is back at practice, general manager John Lynch explained last week that he would not see a big workload immediately.

"The ideal scenario versus Tampa Bay is that he continues to—we keep using this terminology—but ramp up, which just means increase the volume of work that he's doing," Lynch said. "He's been doing that, and he hasn't had any setbacks. The hope is we take it up another notch this week. Provided that goes well, we're kind of opening that window, allowing him to go back to practice. IR players can work to the side. They can't get involved in practice. And so, Christian has been kind of on that plan."

"Now, just opening his window doesn't mean he has to play. We have three weeks then, in which we can activate him, so we'll play this by ear," he said. "We'll listen to Christian, we'll listen to the experts, and hopefully, very soon, he's back playing with us on the field. And then, we've got to be judicious about how much we use him, and that's a hard thing to do because he's so darn good."

If the playoffs began today, the 49ers would not be in the postseason. They are currently the No. 9 NFC seed, and San Francisco has a 57% probability of making the playoffs.