Deep dive into Christian McCaffrey’s sensational Week 9 return

Taking a closer look at Christian McCaffrey’s sensational return from injury.

Although the Carolina Panthers might have another loss in the column, there was plenty of positives to take from their hard-fought defeat at the Kansas City Chiefs. It was once again proof positive that this young and relatively inexperienced roster is heading in the right direction under head coach Matt Rhule and they aren’t too far away from entering the postseason discussion.

Considering they were expected to get blown out at Arrowhead Stadium, for Carolina to take the defending Super Bowl champions down to the last play and might even have won the game is remarkable in the grand scheme of things. It was another contest that could have gone either way and once they figure out how to emerge from these situations with a win, the Panthers will be a force to be reckoned with.

One of the real highlights from the game was the return of Christian McCaffrey. The star running back took the field for the first time since Week 2 and it’s clear his presence in the backfield gave everybody a significant lift.

There were some doubts as to just how much of the burden McCaffrey would carry in his first game back. But it didn’t take long for the All-Pro to make his presence felt once again. This is a timely boost for the 3-6 Panthers ahead of some stiff tests before their bye week and if Carolina can perform as they did in Kansas City, they’ll be just fine.

Let’s delve a little deeper into McCaffrey’s first game back in a Panthers’ uniform