Commanders are seeing the right kind of progress from Luke McCaffrey

Progress Beyond the Box Score

“You really have to look at, ‘Okay, from the receiver spot, where was the route?’ For instance, there was a time last week [against the Cincinnati Bengals] that Luke absolutely got on top of somebody on a deep route, and we didn't throw it that way. And so maybe we didn't take the attempt to him, but you felt the speed of him absolutely.”

In the preseason, that’s a win. Not one that goes in the win-loss column, but one that shows up on tape and helps the Commanders remember and reinvest in the confidence they had that they could develop him, dating back to last April.

"A Little Bit Better Every Single Day"

From his own viewpoint, McCaffrey says he’s focused on doing the little things to get better, and to do them every day so that one day, he can deliver on the expectations his own squad has for him.

“You go every day, hopefully learn something. If you can get a little better every single rep, a little bit better every single day, that's how you make gains,” McCaffrey said after the preseason finale, one in which Washington lost 30-3, but he caught all five of the targets that came his way. “Come in to learn. Come in to be consistent. I think that's the biggest thing in the NFL: trying to gain consistency constantly. You can always improve there, and that's what makes the best players the best.”

Part of what gives McCaffrey that knowledge of the league is what helped build up some of the outside hype in him. Coming from an athletic family, McCaffrey’s brother Christian is the star running back of the San Francisco 49ers, and his father is a Super Bowl champion who most notably starred for the Denver Broncos during his career.

A Different Kind of Versatility

His older brother has proven to be a weapon of versatility, and Quinn says this McCaffrey is proving to be the same, just in a different way.

“We've pushed him in two spots, which he's definitely capable of handling both playing outside and inside... He's got punt return background, kick return background for us... I thought for him covering kicks, man, I felt it,” Quinn said.

So maybe he isn’t blowing the lid off opposing defenses on a weekly basis yet, but he’s taking strides. The kind of strides the Commanders need him to take, and the type of growth he’s looking forward to continuing making once the ugly business of roster cutdown day comes and passes, on Tuesday afternoon.