What would the Panthers record look like with Christian McCaffrey?
By Dean Jones
What would the record look like?
This is all speculation and something we will never know. But it’s hard to look at the close-fought losses suffered by the Carolina Panthers and not come to the conclusion that Christian McCaffrey couldn’t have made a big difference had he been healthy for the entire season.
The Panthers currently find themselves at 4-8, which is probably what was expected coming into the campaign. However, there is an argument to be made that Carolina might be at .500 or better with McCaffrey as their bell-cow.
Somewhere in the region of 6-6 or even 7-5 is a distinct possibility with their face of the franchise. This would have them right bang in playoff contention down the stretch with more spots up for grabs in the new format, which would be the biggest of achievements in year one of Matt Rhule’s reign.
Sadly, this was not to be.
Carolina has very little to play for other than pride this season. They have been competitive against some legitimate postseason contenders without quite doing enough to emerge victorious more often than not.
This is undoubtedly a good learning curve for a young roster that is growing all the time. But immediate success wouldn’t have been far away with McCaffrey in the backfield and firing on all cylinders from the first snap to last.