Christian McCaffrey named among 50 best players in NFL Top 100 despite injuries
Christian McCaffrey only played in three games last year, but that didn’t stop him from being ranked among the 50 best players in the NFL going into the 2021 season.
McCaffrey was announced as No. 44 in the NFL’s Top 100 list Sunday night. He is the only Panther to make the list up to this point. The running back missed 13 games in 2020 due to three unrelated injuries. The year prior, he became the third player in NFL history to have 1,000 rushing and receiving yards in a single season. He had two touchdowns in each of the three games he played in last year.
“I know how to train. I know how to take care of myself,” McCaffrey said on returning from his injuries. “Sometimes you just get unlucky. As much as I would love to prevent those, sometimes freaky stuff happens. But I’m completely moved on to this year. My mind is good. My body is even better and I’m fired up.”
Prior to the 2020 season, McCaffrey, 25, was named No. 6 on the list and he was No. 42 in 2019.
Entering his fifth year in the NFL, McCaffrey is healthy and set to play with his third starting quarterback in the last three years. The No. 8 pick in the 2017 NFL draft has become a veteran leader on the team.
McCaffrey, the highest-paid running back in the NFL, is expected to have another big season in 2021 and will be a significant part of the Panthers offense.
“My mindset has not changed with Christian McCaffrey,” offensive coordinator Joe Brady said during OTAs. “... I told Christian, I don’t need Christian to be anything more than Christian McCaffrey. I think that’s important for him to know, that he doesn’t have anything to prove to me, to prove to anybody else, he just needs to be Christian McCaffrey.
“When he’s coming out here, the work ethic that he’s putting into it, it’s impressive. Every day, there are examples that he’s putting on tape that I want everybody to be like, ‘Hey, we got to play like this.’ ”
This story was originally published August 15, 2021 at 10:19 PM.
