Ten games. That's the number of games in which the Carolina Panthers have had running back Christian McCaffrey available over the last two seasons. His absence alone dramatically changes the production of the offense considering he is, when healthy, the best running back in the entire league.
In an effort to keep McCaffrey healthy, one thing the Panthers did a year ago was they held him out of preseason games. Head coach Matt Rhule discussed earlier this week that the plan was to do that once again along with changing some other things to their daily practice routines.
"After having him for two years, we've studied the best practices of what we can do in terms of practice times to keep him as healthy as possible," Rhule stated. "It's hard to look back, but we've studied all of those things. The cramping in Week 2 and I think we've all went back and said, 'hey, what could we have done differently and some of those injuries happen. A lot of those injuries have been contact injuries. Andy Althoff, sports science, those guys do a great job just evaluating, examining. I would hold him out of all the preseason games again. I think he's had enough hits on his body. I think as we move forward, we'll have a little different strategy practice-wise with him."
As far as his in-game usage is concerned, they know they have to have him on the field and can't take the ball out of his hands in crucial situations. With two quality backs behind him, we'll see a more diverse backfield than we've seen in recent years, although McCaffrey will still see the majority of touches.
"Any time Christian is out there, he changes, tilts the game, tilts the field," said Rhule. "At the same time, we're trying to really invest in Chuba [Hubbard], invest in D'Onta [Foreman], and the other backs because we want to make sure that we have a well-rounded offense. We don't want to run the offense just Christian or just DJ [Moore]. Christian is a chess piece that not many teams have."
Finding ways of staying healthy and fresher on game day hasn't been a one-sided effort. McCaffrey sought out some advice from one of the NFL's best all-time running backs.
"One thing I've done is I've reached out to a lot of backs who have played. And a guy I'm really appreciative for, Marshall Faulk, gave me some great advice. I'll keep that between me and him but just listening to what he had to say and the things he did in the offseason at different points. Injuries or not, sometimes you've got to change your offseason and your approach. I think there's always room to grow and learn and he's a guy who had success for a long time. He's been somebody that I've always looked up to and he's always been great to me, so I just figured I would reach out to him on some of that stuff. I think years six, seven, and eight were really good years for him and it's kind of why I picked his brain."
McCaffrey and Faulk are two of just three players to ever rush for 1,000 yards and go over 1,000 yards receiving in the same season. The other to do so was Roger Craig with the San Francisco 49ers in 1985.
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