Christian McCaffrey: The new No. 1 back in fantasy
Move Over Saquon Barkley, there’s a new Cat in Town
That cat’s name, of course, is Christian McCaffrey of the Carolina Panthers. Prior to the start of the 2019 regular season, Saquon Barkley was regarded as the number one overall consensus pick in fantasy football drafts.
In pretty much every mock draft I participated in, Barkley would go first time and time again. Alvin Kamara and McCaffrey would usually follow suit, but I never saw anyone getting drafted above Saquon. Well, people who had the number one overall selection in the drafts are probably wishing they could redo their pick over again with McCaffrey instead.
Barkley’s numbers haven’t been what many were expecting them to be at this point in the season. After nine weeks of action, Barkley has only compiled 401 rushing yards, 228 receiving yards, and a total of three touchdowns. A couple of reasons why his production has been down this year is due to the fact that he has missed time with an injury, and he doesn’t have much support with his offensive teammates.
Barkley currently ranks as RB19 with a grand total of 108.9 fantasy points through six games played this year. These numbers don’t exactly ring out fantasy MVP status. I can’t blame Barkley entirely for his struggles this year. He’s doing the best he can while playing in a lackluster offense.
McCaffrey, on the other hand, has been having one heck of a season ranking as the best running back in football this year. So far, he has compiled 881 rushing yards (second-most), 363 receiving yards (third-most), and 13 total touchdowns this season. Keep in mind we are only entering the second week of November with plenty of football remaining on the schedule.
What sets McCaffrey apart from a lot of running backs currently playing in the NFL is his ability to catch passes out of the backfield. He is almost like another receiver for the Carolina Panthers offense. This adds so much more value to his fantasy stock and makes him less of a two-dimensional runner for defenders to defend.
While McCaffrey may not be the biggest running back out there, checking in at five foot 11 and 202 lbs, he is still by far the most electric runner on the gridiron for any given Sunday this season. Of course, if we were to see him in person ourselves we would think he is one of the bigger humans we’ve ever encountered, but from a football standpoint, he is average in size compared to other players around the league.
What he may lack in size, he makes up for his talent and speed. McCaffrey is one of the fastest backs out there, whizzing past defenders consistently to help the Panthers and fantasy managers to victory.
At this time, he is averaging the most fantasy points per game among running backs with 30.6 and the number of touchdowns he has scored is almost unreal. The way he is performing this season makes me reminisce of 2016 with David Johnson. That year was a magical season for Arizona’s running back as he tallied 1,239 rushing yards, 879 receiving yards, and 20 total touchdowns.
Even Todd Gurley’s MVP-type of season last year prior to his when his knee troubles flared up was something to remember. He toted the rock for 1,251 yards, 580 air yards, and 21 total touchdowns before his struggles began.
McCaffrey is heading towards that type of territory both from a football and fantasy standpoint. It is truly special what he is doing right before our very eyes. If he keeps it up, he is on track to smash both of Johnson’s and Gurley’s single season statistics with 1,762 rushing yards, 726 receiving yards, and 26 total touchdowns for the year.
Neither of Johnson’s or Gurley’s stats from their respective seasons would compare to what McCaffrey is currently on pace for. Obviously, there will be certain circumstances that will probably curtail his pace, but that is all well and good. It’s actually most likely for the best if you want my most honest opinion.
Truth be told, running backs who have phenomenal years like Todd Gurley tend to wear out much quicker than say a future Hall of Fame running back like Frank Gore. It’s the heavy usage and constant wear and tear that causes these backs to have such short careers and brief shining moments in the NFL.
Gurley is still a talented running back, but because of his chronic knee issues causing some concern, it has made the Rams curb the number of touches he gets per game in 2019.
The Panthers need to be wary of how much they use McCaffrey during this wonderful season he is having. While it is great to see him thriving out there, the last thing anyone would want to see is his career come to an abrupt halt with an injury due to too many touches.
Demarco Murray is also another perfect example of what a high volume of touches can do to a talented runner. He only played seven years in the league before having to retire mainly due to the fact of how heavily the Dallas Cowboys used him in their offensive game plans.
In 2014, Murray touched the ball over 400 times in a career year where he had over 1,800 rushing yards and 13 scores. After that season though, Murray wasn’t quite the same. He had a minor rise in 2016 with the Tennessee Titans, but nothing close to what he accomplished during his days in Dallas. Shortly after the 2017 season, Murray decided to hang up the cleats just after seven years in the NFL at the age of 29.
If the Panthers keep it up with McCaffrey, he could very well have over 300 carries by seasons end. It would behoove Carolina to monitor how much they feed the ball to McCaffrey in order to preserve him for the long run. It’s just something for them to have in mind as they look to make a second-half push to the postseason this November and December.
McCaffrey is in the running for an MVP type season, and I would not be shocked to see him win the award come February. If he does win this award, he will become the first running back to do so since Adrian Peterson in 2012 where he nearly broke the rushing record in a single season.
It won’t be easy since he is also competing against Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson who is having a terrific season of his own.
Having a running back on your fantasy team of McCaffrey’s caliber is quite rare to come by. If you are fortunate enough to have such a talent on your team at this time, please don’t take it for granted and enjoy the luxury of having a heck of a stable presence on your squad.