Christian McCaffrey is the 49ers' star running back.

But in San Francisco's 31-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 29, McCaffrey was almost the quarterback as well.

Speaking with NFL Network's Andrew Siciliano at Super Bowl LVII Radio Row, the 26-year-old revealed his conversation with 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan regarding switching to quarterback after starting QB Brock Purdy hurt his throwing elbow.

"I was not, no," McCaffrey said when asked if he petitioned to play QB for the remainder of the NFC title game. "I was setting up the earpiece in the helmet, and so I was ready to go if needed to be, but, once again, I learned all of the running back stuff and some receiver stuff. 

"Definitely hadn't mastered the quarterback position in that offense yet, so I was willing to do whatever they asked me to do. Definitely wasn't lobbying for anything though."

Even if he had gone under center, McCaffrey believes beating the Eagles would have been just as difficult because of Philadelphia's defense and McCaffrey not getting any reps as the backup signal-caller.

"So, at that point, it was something that I don't know if we had 100 percent -- you don't practice a whole of fear in practice," McCaffrey continued. "You don't practice a lot of emergency quarterback, not to say that you don't practice it, but it's just something that's not ideal, especially with a whole half of football left.

"So we were just trying to do whatever we could at the time."

After Purdy tore his UCL in the first quarter and backup QB Josh Johnson was ruled out of the contest after suffering a concussion in the third quarter, McCaffrey became the 49ers' emergency quarterback. 

McCaffrey's mother, Lisa, shared her thoughts on KNBR's "Murph & Mac" show Wednesday about her son being the 49ers' emergency quarterback in the biggest game of their season.

"... Never in a million years thinking that they would revert to putting him in at quarterback because the dude can't hit the broad side of a barn," Lisa jokingly said of her son. "Once I saw him in there at quarterback, I'm like, 'They'd better be running the wildcat because this is not a recipe for a win.' "

Although the 49ers star had thrown a touchdown earlier in the season against the Los Angeles Rams, having him do it for an entire half against the Eagles was just too much to ask. 

Regardless of how the year ended for San Francisco, McCaffrey is still grateful for the "very special" season he had in the Bay Area. 

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