Panthers Tracks: What might Christian McCaffrey’s follow-up to his 2019 season look like?
Christian McCaffrey is coming off an historic season. He set numerous Carolina Panthers and NFL records, despite the team ending the year on an eight-game losing streak and playing with three different quarterbacks.
His 403 touches resulted in 19 touchdowns, 1,387 rushing yards and 1,005 receiving yards. A final push in Week 17 allowed him to complete the third 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards season in NFL history, joining Marshall Faulk in 1999 and Roger Craig in 1985.
Now McCaffrey, armed with a new four-year extension that made him the highest paid running back in NFL history, will have the opportunity to continue to prove his worth in Carolina. With a new coaching staff in place, McCaffrey’s role will not look exactly the same in 2020. Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Brady has said that the team wants to get creative with the First Team All-Pro, acknowledging that his skills go beyond those of a normal running back.
Neither Faulk nor Craig were able to accomplish the record again in their careers, but of course they went to have exceptional success and set other historic marks.
But what might McCaffrey’s follow-up year look like? Can the 1,000/1,000 season be repeated? Here’s a look at what those players accomplished in their follow-up seasons and what could be next for McCaffrey.
Roger Craig
1985/1986 touches: 306/285
1985/1986 touchdowns: 15/7
1985/1986 rushing yards: 1,050/830
1985/1986 receiving yards: 1,016/624
Like McCaffrey, Craig hit the mark in his third NFL season, becoming the first to set the record. It was the first time in his career that he rushed for over 1,000 yards in a season and the only time he ever had 1,000-plus receiving yards in a single year of his career.
The 49ers went 10-6 that season and Craig was on a team with legends like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Dwight Clark. Craig was both the team’s leading rusher and receiver in 1985, in addition to scoring a team-high 15 touchdowns. The year prior, Craig helped San Francisco win Super Bowl XIX over the Dolphins, scoring one rushing touchdown and two receiving touchdowns, the first player ever to score three touchdowns in a Super Bowl.
What about the 1986 season?
Craig’s touches decreased slightly from 306 to 285, but he finished the year with just 830 rushing yards and 624 receiving yards with his average yards per touch reduced from 6.8 to 5.1.
While he may not have reached the mark again, Craig did rush for 1,502 yards in 1988 and was named First Team All-Pro and Offensive Player of the Year that season.
Marshall Faulk
1999/2000 touches: 340/334
1999/2000 touchdowns: 12/26
1999/2000 rushing yards: 1,381/1,359
1999/2000 receiving yards: 1,048/830
Faulk’s 1,000/1,000 season came in 1999, his first year with the Rams and amidst a season that featured a legendary St. Louis offense. The Rams went on to win Super Bowl XXXIV that year.
He averaged a career-high 7.1 yards per touch that season and was named First Team All-Pro and Offensive Player of the Year. He had almost reached the 1,000/1,000 mark during the 1998 season, but finished 92 receiving yards short.
While the Hall of Famer never reached that mark again, he did have an astounding season in 2000, winning the league’s MVP award. Despite the team’s former offensive coordinator Mike Martz taking over the head coaching job from Dick Vermeil, Faulk retained his sensational numbers, totaling 1,359 rushing yards and 830 receiving yards. On top of that, he had 26 total touchdowns, becoming the first player to ever reach that mark in a single season.
Of course, Faulk went on to finish with a historic career as one of the top running backs of all-time on one of the best offenses, but never did touch the record again.
Christian McCaffrey
2019 touches: 403
2019 touchdowns: 19
2019 rushing/receiving yards: 1,387/1,005
The Panthers running back finished the 2019 season with significantly more touches than either Craig or Faulk in their historic seasons. In fact, he had 97 more touches than Craig had in 1985.
It remains incredibly unlikely for a variety of reasons that McCaffrey will reach that number of touches again. The team will need to be cautious about his usage going forward, knowing he is in the plans for years to come. Both coach Matt Rhule and Brady mentioned including other running backs in the mix more this year, which will likely decrease McCaffrey’s touches.
Ignoring all of that, it’s only natural that McCaffrey will touch the ball less in 2020. Since 2010, only two other players have had more touches in a single season than he did last year (DeMarco Murray in 2014 — 449 and Le’Veon Bell in 2017 — 406).
While the LSU and Saints offense that Brady learned from give running backs opportunities as receivers, just as McCaffrey will get, reaching the mark again seems unrealistic. One thing that may help? It would not be a surprise if Carolina is down often during the season and forced to pass the ball more than usual, which would result in more receiving yards for the back, similar to last year.
McCaffrey will be chasing even more history and his role in the Panthers’ new offense will be worth watching.
Required reading
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+ Panthers coach Matt Rhule on COVID-19 preparations, kneeling, expectations for camp
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Panthers Tracks: What might Christian McCaffrey’s follow-up to his 2019 season look like?."
