Christian McCaffrey is the top overall running back in football right now, hands down. There are many different ways to evaluate the position, though. While it might seem like McCaffrey is one of the NFL’s most elusive running backs, according to Pro Football Focus he’s actually only a little bit better than average in this area.
PFF has released a ranking of each of the league’s 32 starting running backs based on elusiveness and McCaffrey came in at No. 13.
“McCaffrey’s middle-of-the-road missed tackles forced per touch (0.19) and yards after contact per rush (2.6) numbers from the 2019 season stem partially from just how much volume he had to shoulder on the Panthers’ offense. Then again, it’s OK to recognize that he wins in different areas — ability to get open as a receiver, vision, speed, burst, durability, etc. — rather than being among the league’s best at breaking away from defenders in the open field.”
Fair enough. It is interesting to see that players like Chris Carson and Derrick Henry – generally perceived to be old-school power backs – actually rank ahead of McCaffrey in this category.
In any case, McCaffrey’s true value that puts him ahead of the competition are his abilities as a receiver. Given Teddy Bridgewater’s well-documented preference for targeting shorter routes, we should expect no dropoff in McCaffrey’s production as a pass-catcher. In fact, it might even improve considering Bridgewater’s accuracy compared to Kyle Allen.
[lawrence-related id=625316]
[vertical-gallery id=624997]