Christian McCaffrey lands on Panthers injury report. He says he’s ‘ready to roll’
Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey is aware of his injury-prone perception.
“I feel great,” McCaffrey said Thursday. “I think at this point if I went to take a leak during practice I’d end up on the injury report, but I feel great and will be ready to roll.”
Panthers fans, fantasy football players and Twitter went into another collective mini-panic on Thursday when McCaffrey’s name appeared on the team’s injury report. He is listed with an ankle injury and was a limited participant in practice.
The team said McCaffrey had lingering stiffness in his ankle after facing the Giants last weekend. His reps were limited on Thursday as a precaution after he took his weekly veteran’s rest day Wednesday. During practice, he was in full uniform and showed no signs of discomfort as he moved around normally.
McCaffrey is expected to play on Sunday against New Orleans.
He is coming off his first 100-yard rushing game since 2019. His workload has been steady with room for more. He did not record more than 35 yards receiving in consecutive games for the first time since 2017.
“Any time you lose it’s frustrating,” McCaffrey said. “Any time a play doesn’t go well it is frustrating. Like I said a lot of times before, it’s just on to the next game, on to the next play, all (are) fixable things. So it’s frustrating but encouraging at the same time”
Panthers offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo said McCaffrey remains a key part of the offense and that he’ll become more involved in the passing game as the team’s execution improves.
“We still need to make progress on first and second down throwing the ball,” McAdoo said. “When you run the ball at that clip, your opportunities in the passing game are there, too. And when you can put both together, then you’re going to start to click.”
The Panthers rank eighth in rushing DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average), according to Football Outsiders. (DVOA measures a team’s efficiency by comparing success on every single play to a league average based on situation and opponent.)
Carolina can run the ball. McAdoo said the team improved in Week 2 and must take another step on Sunday.
“We took a step last week. Now we take need to take another step,” McAdoo said. “We need to get the run game and the passing game clicking together and that’s when you have something.”
To achieve that, McCaffrey is in line for another feature-back workload on Sunday against the Saints. Through two weeks, his documented injury history has not carried into this season.
No one has forgotten McCaffrey has only played in 10 of the 33 games since Matt Rhule became head coach. McCaffrey did not finish a handful of those 10 starts due to injury.
McCaffrey this week says he’s fine. Therefore, the plan — until further notice — will be to keep him heavily involved in the Panthers’ offense.
