Christian McCaffrey had his 12th 10-catch game, most in NFL history for a running back

Christian McCaffrey led the 49ers with 10 catches in Sunday's win over the Cardinals, continuing his unique place in NFL history as a running back who serves as the primary focus of his team's passing attack.

McCaffrey now has 12 career games with at least 10 catches, which is easily the most for a running back in NFL history. Saints running back Alvin Kamara, with eight 10-catch games, is second all time. Only four other running backs -- Austin Ekeler, Larry Centers, LaDainian Tomlinson and James White -- even have half as many 10-catch games as McCaffrey.

Sunday was McCaffrey's first 10-catch game with the 49ers after he did it 11 times with the Panthers. McCaffrey tended to catch the ball more in Carolina than he did in San Francisco, which may be less about his role in the offense than about the 49ers more often having leads late in the game and wanting McCaffrey to run out the clock on the ground.

With 549 catches in his NFL career, the 29-year-old McCaffrey could hit the 600-catch mark by the end of this season. Only three running backs in NFL history - Larry Centers, Marshall Faulk and LaDainian Tomlinson - have topped 600 catches in their careers.

McCaffrey has the NFL record for catches in a season by a running back, with 116 in 2019, and through three games this season he's on pace to shatter that record with 141 catches in 17 games. It's unlikely that McCaffrey will actually maintain his current pace of catching the ball, but it's safe to say that as long as he's healthy, he's going to have a whole lot of balls thrown his way, as he has throughout his career.