The Panthers haven’t had the season they all envisioned at the beginning of the year, but even in a lost season, running back Christian McCaffrey continues to be a bright spot for the team.
During Sunday’s 30-24 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, McCaffrey became the first Panthers player to gain more than 2,000 all-purpose yards in a season as the big days are coming on a weekly basis, so much so that it’s become an expectation rather than a surprise – and the records that keep falling will likely continue to topple for the next two weeks.
McCaffrey rushed for 87 yards on 19 carries and scored two touchdowns and recorded eight catches for 88 yards. His 2,121 scrimmage yards for the season passed Steve Smith’s franchise all-purpose record (1,994) set in 2001 as McCaffrey became only the 15th player in NFL history to record over 2,100 scrimmage yards in one of their first three seasons in the league.
But the Panthers are 5-9 on the season as the team has lost six consecutive games. One day, McCaffrey may enjoy his individual accomplishments from the 2019 season, but that certainly wasn’t on Sunday as he finds it difficult to process his amazing season because of the Panthers losing record.
“I try to leave my mindset simple and control what I can control and do whatever I can to help our team win,” McCaffrey said. “At the end of the day, everybody wants to win. Football is about winning and losing.
“All the stats and other stuff doesn’t really matter unless you win.”
Earlier this season, McCaffrey was one of the early season candidates for the NFL MVP, but as the Panthers have fallen down the standings during the last month and a half, he hasn’t been mentioned as much for the award.
It certainly wasn’t for his production – because McCaffrey, through 14 games, has rushed for 1,304 yards and 14 touchdowns and has 94 receptions for 814 yards and four touchdowns – he’s on pace to finish with the third-most yards from scrimmage in NFL history, but of the two ahead of him, only one was in a winning season.
Marshall Faulk had 2,429 yards in the Ram’s 1999 campaign that finished in a Super Bowl win, but Chris Johnson’s Titans failed to capitalize on the running back’s 2,509 total yards and finished 8-8, missing the playoffs – neither player won the MVP.
“It’s kind of hard when you have a guy having such a great season to not be winning,” said guard Trai Turner. “When you’ve got a guy who should be in the MVP conversation and his name just goes silent because we’re not having a great season, it’s a learning experience.”
Although McCaffrey didn’t want to talk a lot about his accomplishments after the Panthers, his teammates certainly had a lot to say about the type of season he is having, starting with Panthers quarterback Kyle Allen.
“He’s incredible,” Allen said. “Our offense runs through him. He’s the leader on our team. He’s the hidden gem in all of this failure that we’ve had lately. He’s the epitome of consistency. I look up to a guy like that because I want to be consistent and help this team win and he does that every single week. I’ve learned a lot from him. When you look at a guy like that, he’s the guy you want to build a team around.”
Panthers interim head coach Perry Fewell said McCaffrey reminds him of a Hall of Famer who was on the St. Louis Rams when he was a defensive backs coach for the team back in 2003-04 – a guy who McCaffrey just might pass in the record books over the next two weeks.
“Initially, I said he reminded me of the Marshall Faulk type guy because he can do it running, he can do it catching, he does it protection-wise and he is outstanding on and off the field,” Fewell said.
From 1999-2001, Faulk averaged 1,374 yards and 83.7 receptions a season. McCaffrey is on pace to pass Faulk’s best rushing season and he will almost certainly register 100 receptions on the season for the second straight year – when he does (he has 94 currently), he’ll be the only running back in NFL history with two seasons of 100 or more catches.
Even Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll was impressed by the way McCaffrey performed against his team.
“He’s such a fantastic player; I just marvel at his toughness – he’s just so consistently tough. I don’t know if you guys talk about him here that way, but he’s a great competitor and he battles every week,” Carroll said. “We hit the heck out of him today and kept bringing it and he kept fighting and getting up. And then I kept wondering, is he going to hang on the ground a little bit. He didn’t.
“He’s just a magnificent player.”
What McCaffrey is able to produce on Sundays is a testament to how hard he works during the week; all of his teammates can attest that McCaffrey is one of – if not the – hardest workers in the locker room.
“What he’s doing on a week-to-week basis just goes to show you how hard he works,” said wide receiver Chris Hogan. “Every single week, the guy puts in hours of studying, working out and making sure that he’s healthy, which is the biggest thing – for a guy that touches the ball as much as he does to come back and do it week in and week out, it’s nothing short of incredible what he’s able to do….he deserves everything that comes his way.”
But it all matters less in a season that will end in two weeks as opposed to continue into the playoffs.
“He’s probably the first guy that’s going to sit here and say ‘I’d rather win football games – I don’t really care how much I touch the ball, I want to play in January.'”
