With ‘frustrating’ 2020 over, Christian McCaffrey alters approach to offseason work
A combined 13 missed games for Christian McCaffrey this season led to far-too-many “what-ifs” surrounding what the Carolina Panthers offense could have, or should have, looked like.
McCaffrey’s first season after signing a four-year, $64 million contract that made him the highest-paid running back in NFL history wasn’t exactly what anyone anticipated. Three injuries in a single season — high ankle sprain, separation of the AC joint in his shoulder, and a pulled quad — are hard to predict.
“There’s a lot of guys around the league who had career- or season-ending injuries that they were done for the year as soon as they hurt it,” McCaffrey said Monday. “That wasn’t my case. My case is just kind of when it rains, it pours. It was one thing after the other.”
The storm of injuries caused the running back to miss Weeks 3 through 8 and every game after Week 9. With the next Panthers game nine months away, McCaffrey will go into the offseason with a different mindset toward training and preparing for a high workload once again in 2021.
Coming into 2020, the concerns surrounding the star running back had been the potential of using him too much and wearing him down for the future. He had almost 200 touches as a rookie in 2017 followed by 326 in 2018 and a league-high 403 last year.
His 2020 season started with the Week 2 ankle injury in the game against Tampa Bay. The work he put in to return from a shoulder injury suffered in Week 9 vs. the Kansas City Chiefs led to him standing on the sidelines even longer with a quad injury.
“I had my ankle, which was bad. (I) did what I could to come back, came back, felt good and hurt my shoulder,” McCaffrey said. “Then, while I was rehabbing my shoulder, I pulled my quad pretty much. It was just kind of one thing after another and at the end of the day, we just decided to shut it down.”
McCaffrey, 24, scored two touchdowns in each of the three games he did play, finishing the season as the team’s second-leading scorer (six touchdowns) behind his backup Mike Davis (eight).
He finished his fourth NFL season with 374 scrimmage yards on 76 touches (4.9 yards per touch). In 2019, he became the third player in NFL history to record 1,000 receiving yards and 1,000 rushing yards in a single season (joining Roger Craig and Marshall Faulk).
McCaffrey’s touches decreased from 52.5% of the total offense to 9.7% in 2020, just after new offensive coordinator Joe Brady discussed how he thought the back’s extensive workload in 2019 was appropriate.
To stay healthy in 2021, McCaffrey, who spends a significant amount of time and money keeping his body in the best condition possible, will approach his offseason work differently.
“Every year that’s kind of the challenge, to figure out exactly what’s the perfect way to create a machine going into the season. And that’s going to be my goal this offseason, starting now, is to prepare the best way possible,” McCaffrey said. “Sometimes that means resting, and sometimes it means not going out and training, because I can be my own worst enemy sometimes with that. I think that’s one thing I’ve learned, too, is just be healthy. Too much is not always good.”
He wanted to come back in 2020 — his fantasy football owners would agree — and called watching from the sidelines “frustrating.” McCaffrey said head coach Matt Rhule did not shut him down for the season until Week 17, and having him sit out to lose games for a better draft pick was never on the table, something the head coach has been consistent about.
His desire to return led him to work harder than he should have. It was the work off the field, not on it, that held him back from fully returning.
Now, McCaffrey will be using the example of other NFL players who have returned from major injuries to motivate him to find his way back and try to remain on the field..
The Panthers are relying on McCaffrey to come back healthy in 2021 and the years to come.
“I think Christian is going to enter this offseason with real perspective about what he needs to do for his body moving forward and, unlike some guys, more is more,” Rhule said. “For him, it might just be like he has to take some time and recover and then hit 2021 running and hit it full speed.”
Christian McCaffrey career Panthers stats
2017: 16 games played
▪ 117 carries for 425 yards, two TDs
▪ 80 receptions for 651 yards, five TDs
2018: 16 games played
▪ 219 carries for 1,098 yards, seven TDs
▪ 107 receptions for 867 yards, six TDs
2019: 16 games played
▪ 287 carries for 1,387 yards, 15 TDs
▪ 116 receptions for 1,005 yards, four TDs
2020: 3 games played
▪ 59 carries for 225 yards, five TDs
▪ 17 receptions for 149 yards, one TD
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
