Carolina Panthers star running back Christian McCaffrey joined elite company on Sunday in his team's Week 15 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks. The 23-year-old Stanford product became the Panthers' first player in franchise history with 2,000 yards from scrimmage, per NFL Research on Twitter.
Christian McCaffrey has become the first player in franchise history to join the 2,000-scrimmage yard club
@run__cmc broke his own @Panthers record that he set last year (1,965) for most scrimmage yards in a season#Panthers | #KeepPounding
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) December 15, 2019
McCaffrey, Carolina's eighth overall selection from the 2017 NFL Draft, broke his own Panthers record set last season for the team's most yards from scrimmage. He was only 35 yards short of the golden 2,000 number, but this year the rising star in the backfield truly undid himself.
McCaffrey has a legitimate case for the league's regular season MVP award, but that will likely falter in comparison to Baltimore Ravens sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is breaking records himself. Jackson broke Michael Vick's rushing record for a signal-caller this past Thursday.
Nevertheless, McCaffrey has been a workhorse all season and remains one of the preeminent threats out of the backfield—a dual-threat running back with dynamic playmaking ability as a receiver, too. That dual-threat ability was on display earlier this season when McCaffrey recorded 1,000 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards through just 10 games in 2019.
Another metric McCaffrey is outpacing himself in is touchdowns; the third-year rusher has 12 rushing touchdowns through 13 games and four more through the air. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the Panthers organization—longtime head coach Ron Rivera was fired earlier this month—McCaffrey should be a big part of the franchise in the present and immediate future. That may or may not include Cam Newton under center or undrafted quarterback Kyle Allen, who has had to start in the former MVP's place since Week 2.
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