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Where in the world would the 49ers be without Christian McCaffrey this season?

Well, we actually know the definitive answer. It’s not a mystery. The whole thing was exposed to view all last season, when McCaffrey wasn’t ever close to 100%, the entire team sagged, then everything collapsed into the sea once he was out for the duration.

Not just the running game. Not just the passing game. Not just the offense in totality. The entire team. Ka-bam.

And yes, 2025 has been very, extremely, staggeringly different for McCaffrey, and therefore the 49ers overall.

“Anytime he’s just feeling himself and running at a really high level, the 49ers are a very good football team,” George Kittle said Monday night after McCaffrey supplied most of the offense in the 49ers’ 20-9 victory over Carolina at Levi’s Stadium.

Yes, it’s pretty much that simple. And it’s been that simple since the October day in 2022 when the 49ers traded multiple draft picks to the Panthers for McCaffrey — definitely the greatest trade of this 49ers era and probably multiple eras.

McCaffrey is not the kind of guy who shows his rawest feelings very often, but there were a few brief glimpses of the extra motivation he brought to this first game against the team he helped carry for several seasons.

But to put it in the most important way right now: Without his 24 carries for 89 yards and a touchdown plus his seven receptions for 53 yards, the 49ers might not have won this game.

And you could say that about two or three other games earlier this season. Or four or five. (He now has gained more than 100 yards from scrimmage in 10 of the 49ers’ 12 games. The only two times he didn’t hit that number came in the bad losses to the Texans and the Rams.)

On Monday, it was McCaffrey who touched it nine times in the 49ers’ 15-play, tone-setting opening TD drive. It was McCaffrey who kept carrying the load after Brock Purdy went through a bizarre three-interception run in the first half. It was McCaffrey who was always open. It was McCaffrey who was always fighting for the extra yard to get the first down.

It was McCaffrey. It’s always McCaffrey when things are right for the 49ers.

On an otherwise sluggish and not-very-impressive night for the 49ers, it was McCaffrey who got them to 8-4 and kept them in playoff position heading into next weekend’s game in Cleveland. The 49ers will probably need to be sharper than they were on Monday to win that game, but if they do, they’ll be at 9-4 heading into their very late bye week.

That’s in a season they lost Nick Bosa early and Fred Warner soon after that. That’s in a season Purdy missed eight games, Kittle missed four games, and Brandon Aiyuk might never appear.

The singular, undeniable constant that has kept the 49ers from spiraling down the drain the way they did last year? It’s McCaffrey, of course.

Oh, by the way, he now leads the league in total yards from scrimmage, total touches, rushing attempts, and receptions. (He’s played one more game than most of the other leaders, but it’s still pretty amazing to be at these totals.)

“We have nothing but the utmost respect for that guy and what he does for our team — and does it over and over and over again,” Purdy said of McCaffrey.

To take it further: McCaffrey is the biggest reason the 49ers have a shot to go on an upset run through the playoffs.

He probably won’t be a top MVP candidate the way he was in 2023 (because that almost always goes to a player on a team seeded higher than the 49ers are likely to finish). He probably won’t lead the league in rushing or score 21 total TDs the way he did in 2023. He’s on pace to put up his second career — and fourth in league history — 1,000-1,000 season, but a wobble or two down the stretch could make it close. (He’s now on pace for 1,127 rushing yards and 1,112 receiving yards.)

But McCaffrey’s one of a handful of NFC stars — including Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs, Los Angeles’ Matthew Stafford, Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Philadelphia’s Jalen Carter, and Green Bay’s Micah Parsons — who essentially are an attack plan all by themselves. Who can win playoff games almost by themselves.

You know Kyle Shanahan is going to go to McCaffrey. You can set up your entire defense to stop him. And maybe you won’t stop him.

“He really makes our pass game go,” Shanahan said.

He makes everything about the 49ers go. I mean, how else could Mac Jones look so good subbing in for Purdy for those eight games (and five wins)?

And just by keeping the chains moving — McCaffrey also leads the league in first-downs gained, naturally — he protects the vulnerable 49ers defense, too.

Of course, Purdy and Kittle can also dominate games and have done it recently and in very big moments. And the 49ers actually gained a lot of yards last season even with McCaffrey playing only four games and not looking like himself in any of them.

But without him last season, the 49ers just didn’t have the same bounce and confidence. Shanahan’s playcalling seemed a little duller. If the 49ers got behind early, it felt like it was over. If they made a mistake, it was harder to recover.

I have a theory: Shanahan has called some explosive offenses with the 49ers and before that when he didn’t have McCaffrey, but since he got No. 23 on board, Shanahan’s started to see the offense from a specific McCaffrey perspective. Who wouldn’t?

He also pretty clearly felt McCaffrey’s absence last season — a team and system carefully built around the best all-around offensive player in the league can’t keep going at full speed when he’s gone. It doesn’t work that way.

Just like on Monday, it’s pretty easy to guess that Shanahan planned to go with McCaffrey running and receiving early, draw Carolina’s defense up solely to stop McCaffrey, then run some play-action to get receivers open over the top. The receivers were there, as Shanahan and Purdy both said after the game. The interceptions came when Purdy was a little late and a little errant with the passes.

So Shanahan went back to McCaffrey. Over and over and over. And it worked over and over and over. It’s an incredible luxury to have. But for the 49ers now, it’s not a luxury.

McCaffrey is their identity, their engine, their bell cow, and the reason they’ve survived all the devastating losses this season. He’s the one injury they can’t overcome, because he’s the one who’s overcoming all the other ones.