A do-it-all maven in college, Christian McCaffrey entered the draft with a flawless track record. He dominated on the ground, as a receiver and on special teams.
McCaffrey did just about everything he could do in college to make us feel like he'll be a good pro. Does that guarantee us he'll be actually be good? Heck no. But, man, he sure does have a nice résumé.
Namely, in a league that keeps passing more and more, it's McCaffrey's work as a receiver that can make him such a valuable weapon for the Carolina Panthers. McCaffrey accounted for an astounding 20.67% market share of his team's catches in his final year at Stanford, which would be great for, you know, a receiver.
He then went and delivered a pretty promising performance at the combine (image courtesy of PlayerProfiler.com).
While the workout numbers are solid -- not exceptional, but pretty good -- it's his college dominator rating that should get us excited. He accounted for a whopping 50.7% of Stanford's total team yards and touchdowns. Per PlayerProfiler.com, any number over 40.0% is considered excellent, so 50.7% is stupid-good.
The situation in Carolina is pretty sweet, too.
Jonathan Stewart, entering his age-30 season, is still there, and the team insists his role is secure. Even if that's proves to be true, J-Stew shouldn't prevent McCaffrey from making waves in PPR formats as Stewart has hauled in a meager 24 passes over his past 26 games.
We have no idea how McCaffrey is going to be deployed, but he's going to give Carolina a major pass-game option out of the backfield, which is something they either haven't had or a route they've elected not to use much lately.
Our models are pretty high on McCaffrey, projecting him to record 54 receptions for 391 yards and 3.22 scores while carrying the rock 163 times for 752 yards and another 4.14 touchdowns. That's 212.46 PPR points, if you're scoring at home, which would've been good enough for an RB13 finish last season.
And our projections have Stewart logging 164 carries of his own. If something were to happen -- either an injury or McCaffrey running away with the job -- to cause Stewart to see less volume, McCaffrey could become a league-winning pick.
Even if he and J-Stew split carries, McCaffrey can still provide PPR value as he currently owns an ADP of RB18 (4.02).