Should Panthers, Christian McCaffrey consider a move to WR?

There are two discernible paths the Carolina Panthers can try to walk down with running back Christian McCaffrey. Both, however, may just be exercises in futility.

So, let’s pave a third . . .

On Monday, the team officially halted their star rusher’s season upon sending him back to the injured reserve with an ankle issue—one, by the way, that we’re still awaiting further clarity on. Regardless, the injury was severe enough to keep him away from the five remaining games of the campaign and, more disappointingly, add to his laundry list of recent setbacks.

A high ankle sprain, a shoulder sprain and a thigh strain all contributed to what was, collectively, a 13-game absence last year. This time around, that ankle and a hamstring strain sustained back in Week 3 will bring his 2021 total to 10 games on the sideline.

In all, McCaffrey will have missed—at season’s end—23 of a possible 33 outings since 2020. McCaffrey’s case is also worsened by the fact that these constant injury woes began right after he signed his mega-deal to become the NFL’s highest-paid running back.

Now, what to do?

Do the Panthers just keep moving on with McCaffrey out of the backfield? Do they, despite the wear and tear that’s taken an apparent toll, go about business as usual starting in 2022?

Eh.

No matter how the Panthers, McCaffrey or head coach Matt Rhule slice it, there’s no doubt that the onerous load required of the man to carry this team’s offense is a major factor in these absences. In the two games prior to the hamstring strain, McCaffrey totaled an insane 59 touches to start the slate.

Then, while he was eased in a bit beginning with his return in Week 9, the bug caught him again. He averaged a tick over 19 touches per contest before going back down in Week 12 against the Miami Dolphins—where he was up to 10 carries before the end of the first half.

Carolina is essentially damned if they do and damned if they don’t in their utilization of McCaffrey as a running back. Even though it’d be considerate towards his health to keep him off the field more often, doing so is certainly not in the best interest of winning. This is an infinitely more potent team when No. 22 is on it and at full gear.

But doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. And they might be insane to expect McCaffrey not to accrue any further damage as the workhorse they need him to be.

If that’s a suboptimal approach, then why not trade him? Surely, there’s a team out there wanting a dynamic do-it-all back to widen their offense, right?

Meh.

Unfortunately, there’s not a team out there wanting a dynamic do-it-all back who’s, again, frequently injured as he embarks on the hefty portion of his four-year, $64 million contract extension.

McCaffrey is slated to account for a cap hit of $14.3 million in 2022, $17.7 million in 2023 and 2024 and $13.6 million in 2025. Additionally, the potential out in the contract in 2023 would have the Panthers paying—if they were to choose to part ways—over $12 million in dead cap.

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Okay, so that’s not exactly great either. We bet you’re itching for that “third path” we alluded to earlier, aren’t you?

Well, maybe Carolina and McCaffrey can get a little creative. Maybe the All-Pro rusher can turn into an All-Pro . . . receiver?

For one, and to be fair, the injury risk just won’t go away with a switch. Numerous studies have shown receivers are amongst the players most likely to come away bruised and battered.

How’s this for logic, though?

Wouldn’t it be less risky for a 5-foot-11, 205-pounder to take on one, maybe two defensive backs of his size than the middle of a front seven filled with hulking linemen and linebackers? And wouldn’t it be easier to take on, say, eight receptions a game rather than eight receptions and 20 carries a game?

Also, telling a guy to up and switch positions—especially one who’s a 25-year-old superstar—is quite unconventional, and perhaps even insulting. McCaffrey himself, however, is unconventional in terms of his talent. The dude is, like, really special.

If any back can make the jump out wide, it’s undoubtedly McCaffrey. (That’s, of course, discounting Atlanta’s Cordarrelle Patterson. No givesies backsies, sir.)

Above all his other premier gifts—his quickness, his burst, his balance, his knowhow—stands his truly remarkable, truly elite footwork. That would be a key slate of foundation in a potential move to receiver.

Plus, we’ve seen it already from McCaffrey, even after being considered the 2017 draft’s top route runner. The son of former NFL wideout Ed McCaffrey, Christian himself is a skillful technician.

He can break open the top of the defense:

Line up in the slot on a stop route:

Hit a feint on a post to the end zone:

Freeze a defender on the comeback:

Hit the sideline on an out:

And has shown his ability on slants with his Texas routes:

Look, this is simply just spitballing here. We’re in the middle of a bye week, we need some content to keep us intrigued and why not hit on the most prevalent topic for the franchise?

But maybe, just maybe, it’s a possible escape plan for both the Panthers and McCaffrey. Maybe the Panthers can still get some valuable usage out of their handsomely paid stud. Maybe McCaffrey can extend his football career by decreasing the risk.

And maybe it could soon be time for McCaffrey to undertake an important lesson of adaption from his idol Bruce Lee.

“Be Water, my friend,” Lee once famously said. “Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

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