Sir Purr
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- Mar 16, 2019
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They're happy to let him, if it means he's back in the fold.
Among the problems last year was the absence of the All-Pro back because of a series of injuries. While some Panthers stacked up some stats last year, the lack of a guy who can top 1,000 yards as both a rusher and receiver (as he did in 2019) was clear to see, and the trickle-down effects without their best player were obvious.
This spring, he's been out there the whole time — and generally one of the first few guys on the practice field — and having him set the tone is important.
"You can obviously feel the difference when Christian is out on the football field," offensive coordinator Joe Brady said. "You see the production of it. But I told Christian, I don't need Christian to be anything more than Christian McCaffrey. I think that's important for him to know, that he doesn't have anything to prove to me, to prove to anybody else — he just needs to be Christian McCaffrey.
"When he's coming out here, the work ethic that he's putting into it, it's impressive. Every day, there's examples that he's putting on tape that I want everybody to be like, 'Hey, we've got to play like this.'"
McCaffrey noted that he was fortunate to learn the lessons he needed as a rookie; he had a room including Jonathan Stewart, Fozzy Whittaker, and Cameron Artis-Payne around to teach him the differences in life as a pro.
In that same vein, he's happy to mentor all of the kids around him now; and even pick up a thing or two from them in the process.
"And I'm always learning too. There's a lot of young talented guys on this team," he said. "Just the other day, (undrafted rookie) Spencer Brown made a move that I'll definitely try to put in my arsenal. Not that I've never seen it, but when you see it live, I mean those guys are here for a reason too.
"As a vet, I'm always learning and picking stuff up from those guys as well."