Christian McCaffrey off to an MVP-caliber season for Panthers
By John Buhler
The Carolina Panthers have won three straight games, thanks in large part to the MVP-caliber season they are getting from running back Christian McCaffrey.
After falling to 0-2 on the year, the Carolina Panthers looked to be in the midst of a lost season. Starting quarterback Cam Newton suffered a leg injury and hadn’t won a game for the Panthers in going on a year. Things were looking grim, but Carolina responded. His backup Kyle Allen has gone 3-0 since filling it, but who could overlook the terrific year by running back Christian McCaffrey?
McCaffrey is in his third year with the Panthers after an incredible college career at Stanford. He broke out a year ago after a so-so rookie campaign in 2017. Now, he’s pushing himself into the early NFL MVP conversation.
McCaffrey isn’t just leading your fantasy football team to victory, he’s giving the Panthers the offensive firepower they’ll need to offset Newton’s loss to complement what looks to be another stellar defense in Charlotte.
In an important home game versus their fellow 1995 NFL Expansion big cat brethren Jacksonville Jaguars, McCaffrey had 19 carries for 176 yards and two touchdowns out of the backfield. He also had six catches for 61 yards and an additional trip to pay dirt for the afternoon.
His three scores for Carolina were key in the Panthers’ narrow 34-27 win over the Fighting Gardner Minshew II’s of Duval County, Florida. Add in that strip-sack of Minshew in the first half and that was the difference in the ball game between Carolina and Jacksonville.
This was McCaffrey’s third 100-yard rushing game of the season. He narrowly missed out on making it four on the campaign last week, as he was seven yards short from the century mark in a win versus the Houston Texans.
Sunday was also McCaffrey’s third ball game where he had at least six catches out of the backfield for 60 receiving yards. He managed to find the end zone as a receiver for the first time this season in this home victory over the Jaguars. The guy can do it all, much in the vein of what he did for the Cardinal for years down on The Farm in the Pac-12 for Stanford head coach David Shaw.
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Will McCaffrey end up winning NFL MVP? Probably not, as he doesn’t play quarterback and he will need to presumably rush for over 2,000 yards this season to put him in the conversation. But with his big game on Sunday, he’s now on pace to rush for 1,879 yards in 2019. More big-time performances like this will lead to more Panthers wins and he’ll end up in the MVP race for real.