9781422272084

season, joining the great Roger Craig (1985) and Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk (1999). Those 2,392 yards from scrimmage were also the third most in NFL history, jumping in front of luminaries such as Tiki Barber, LaDainian Tomlinson, Barry Sanders, and Marcus Allen, among other greats. On his trek into the record books, McCaffrey produced a remarkable 15-catch day against Indianapolis in Week 16, setting a franchise record for most catches by a Carolina Panthers player in a game. Standing five feet eleven inches, with 205 pounds on his chiseled frame, he has the courage and toughness for gaining the hard, punishing yards running inside that are needed to keep the first down chains moving, and he possesses the vision and quickness for scampering outside, turning the corner, and picking up big chunks of yardage. In addition, he is the league’s premier pass-catching running back, as his 116 grabs in 2019 and 107 receptions in 2018 earned him a special spot in the NFL record books as the first running back in league history to have multiple 100-catch seasons. Amazingly, he’s only twenty-six years old. Unfortunately, his five-year NFL career has been hampered by injuries in recent seasons. McCaffrey missed 13 games in 2020 and 10 more in 2021. During the 2019 season he was on the field for an astounding 95 percent of his team’s offensive plays, and 91 percent the season before—and he usually ends up delivering a positive play that leaves defenders grasping at air and muttering to themselves about how he squirmed away. In 2019 alone he led the league in yards from scrimmage, all-purpose yards, and total touches. In addition, his 19 touchdowns were tied for tops in the league with Green Bay’s Aaron Jones. A 2020 Pro Bowl selection, McCaffrey has forced defensive coordinators around the league to tinker with all sorts of new schemes and strategies aimed at trying to contain him while emerging as one of the NFL’s ultimate offensive weapons at running back, an all-purpose, every-down, yardage-hoarding superstar. 8 Christian McCaffrey