Rivera now saying it would be "ideal" for McCaffrey to have 25-30 touches per game

[RelaxImaPro]

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera said on Wednesday it would be "ideal'' if second-year running back Christian McCaffreyhad 25 to 30 touches a game this season, more than doubling what he had as a rookie.

McCaffrey averaged 7.3 carries a game and five receptions a game a year ago as the eighth pick of the draft.

 

Christian McCaffrey scored on a 56-yard catch and run in the Panthers' playoff loss to the New Orleans Saints last season. Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Jonathan Stewart took a lot of touches from McCaffrey, averaging 13.2 carries a game in 2017. He was released during the offseason for salary-cap reasons, moving McCaffrey into the No. 1 role despite the addition of free agent C.J. Anderson, who averaged 15.3 carries a game a year ago for Denver.

"I could see Christian, especially if he continues to develop the way we think he can, being a very integral part of what we want to do,'' Rivera said after players reported to training camp at Wofford College.

 

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"I don't want to get to the point where everything starts through him, because it'll always be through the quarterback [Cam Newton]. But he can be one of those guys that hopefully gets the ball 25 to 30 times a game. That would be ideal.''

That would be rare for a back to make such a jump from his first to second season. According to ESPN Stats & Information, only a handful of backs have reached 25 touches per game in the second season period since 2001 and the jump was not close to what McCaffrey would have to make.

Among the notables, LaDainian Tomlinson went from 24.9 to 28.2 touches in 2001-02. Dallas' Ezekiel Elliott went from 23.6 to 26.8 touches in 2016-17.

The biggest jump was New Orleans' Deuce McAllister, who played behind workhorse Ricky Williams during his rookie year of 2001. McAllister went from 1.9 touches as a rookie to 24.8 in his second season.

Rivera is confident McCaffrey can make the jump because he believes the 5-foot-11 back can run between the tackles as he did at Stanford, where he touched the ball offensively 27.2 times a game in 2015 and 26.4 in 2016.

He told ESPN during offseason workouts McCaffrey could top 200 carries this season after having only 117 a year ago.

Much of how McCaffrey is used depends on new offensive coordinator Norv Turner, who has a history of giving his lead back a lot of touches.

Turner's lead back had at least 200 carries in seven of his eight full seasons as an offensive coordinator with Dallas, San Diego, San Francisco, Cleveland and Minnesota. Five times the lead back topped 300 carries. As a head coach, Turner's lead back topped 200 carries 10 times in 15 seasons and 300 carries four times.

Rivera was with Turner at San Diego when Tomlinson and Darren Sproles were lead backs. Tomlinson had 339 carries in addition to 59 catches in 2001, his rookie season at San Diego, where Turner was offensive coordinator. He averaged 276 carries in his first three seasons after Turner returned as the head coach in 2007.

"I could see him doing some of those things with [McCaffrey],'' Rivera said.

McCaffrey welcomes the challenge. He has gone from a playing weight of 202 pounds last year to 208 with added muscle.

"I love to hear that,'' he said of an increased role. "Hopefully, it happens. Anytime coach tells you you're going to get the ball more you get a little excited about that.''

McCaffrey is excited about the Panthers in general after losing in the first round of the playoffs last season.

"We want to win a Super Bowl,'' McCafffrey said. "That's every team's goal, and that's what we have our eyes on.''

 

 

That would be 400-480 touches in a season... one hell of a jump from last year and double what Rivera previously said.  They seem to have a lot of confidence in this young man and I'm all for it.

 

http://kwese.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24193455/carolina-panthers-want-christian-mccaffrey-get-25-30-touches-game

 

edit: goddamn this quote formatting sucks dick... fug it, I'm just posting the whole article because it keeps getting completely butchered when I post snippets in quote tags.

[Snake]

Unless Moton becomes beast mode I doubt that. I see him with a mix of touches like last year. 

[LinvilleGorge]

Good. When you draft a RB in the top 10 he's supposed to be a workhorse. I really want to see CMC given every opportunity to be a feature back this season.

[t96]

25-30 touches a game is completely unrealistic and unsustainable and makes zero sense with CJ Anderson here. I could see 20 touches a game maybe which is still a big increase from last year. I want McC to be the clear lead back and main guy but running any player into the ground like that makes no sense. Look at DeMarco Murray in 2014...

[Rags]

45 minutes ago, t96 said:

25-30 touches a game is completely unrealistic and unsustainable and makes zero sense with CJ Anderson here. I could see 20 touches a game maybe which is still a big increase from last year. I want McC to be the clear lead back and main guy but running any player into the ground like that makes no sense. Look at DeMarco Murray in 2014...

touches =/= carries.

We all know what a threat CMC is as a receiver, 

[t96]

26 minutes ago, Rags said:

touches =/= carries.

We all know what a threat CMC is as a receiver, 

Nowhere in my post did I indicate or even suggest touches=carries. I stand by everything I said taking into account carries and receptions.

[top dawg]

I'm skeptical. This may not end well.

[Pup McBarky]

3 hours ago, top dawg said:

I'm skeptical.

So am I. If this is the case, why not just stick with CAP and sign a safety instead of spending money on Anderson? Wonder what he thinks about this?

[Khyber53]

If he gets DeAngelo's share of carries from the heydays of Double Trouble, we'll all be happy.

 

[carpanfan96]

well if he gets say 70 receptions and  200 rush attempts, he'd still be under 20 touches a game. So dont think him getting 330 touches is bad or running him into the ground, that's just slightly over 20 touches a game. 

[Hoenheim]

this is literally like the 3rd time this week someone made a topic about this 

[Pup McBarky]

42 minutes ago, bull123 said:

No....Anderson will be important for us....While CAP is a forum fav, Anderson is way better....CAP may not even make the team

My point is that 25-30 touches/game is 40-50% of our offense. Given our array of old and new weapons, where does that leave Anderson? Four touches a game?

[arbnranger]

Smokescreen 

[FakePlasticTrees]

When you look at the offensive skill position additions, it is hard for me to believe he will get this number of touches per game. In fact, spreading the wealth may be the better strategy. I will say that if he gets that number of touches per game, it means he is having a great season.