Matt Rhule gives injury update for Christian McCaffrey
Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule updated the status of star running back Christian McCaffrey for Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. He announced that McCaffrey is 50-50 to play on Sunday.
“I couldn’t go either way right now,” Rhule said.
McCaffrey has been very durable for most of his NFL career, however, the injury bug has bitten him the past two years. His most recent injury was a hamstring strain he suffered in Week 3 against the Houston Texans. In 2020, he simply couldn’t stay healthy. The Stanford product suffered a high ankle sprain in Week 2, a shoulder sprain in Week 9, and a thigh injury in Week 13 while training on his own during the bye week.
His best performance of the 2021 season thus far came against the New York Jets, when he racked up 98 rushing yards and 89 receiving yards, while scoring no touchdowns.
The talented tailback is one of the best all-purpose backs in the National Football League, so if he has to continue to miss time, it will be a huge blow to the Panthers’ offense.
So far in his highly decorated NFL career with the Panthers, McCaffrey has rushed for over 3,300 rushing yards and hauled in over 2,800 receiving yards.
In 2018, he set the NFL running back record for catches in a season with 107. He followed that up with 116 catches in 2019. His 2019 campaign was historic as he became just the third NFL running back in league history to rush for over 1,000 rushing yards and haul in over 1,000 receiving yards in the same season.
McCaffrey college highlights
Christian McCaffrey finished his college career at Stanford as one of the most decorated running backs in college football history. While he didn’t win the Heisman Trophy, in 2015 he broke Barry Sanders‘ single-season all-purpose yardage record of 3,250 rushing yards he set in 1998.
The record was considered one of the most difficult records for any running back to break and McCaffrey found a way to do it. In 2015, he shredded opposing defenses to the tune of 3,864 all-purpose yards. He rushed for over 2,000 rushing yards in that season, while racking up over 1,000 yards on kick returns. His 1,070 kick return yards were the third-most in school history. At the time, he became one of only two FBS players to tally over 3,500 career rushing yards, while hauling in over 1,200 career receiving yards.
He was named first-team All-American in 2015 both as a kick returner and a running back. The accolades for his 2015 season are nearly endless; he was named Associated Press Player of the Year, Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year and the Rose Bowl Offensive MVP.