5 potential Carolina Panthers liabilities vs. NY Jets in Week 1

Christian McCaffrey – Carolina Panthers RB

It isn’t often one can list a team’s biggest asset as one of their liabilities in any game, but bear with the reasoning for a moment if you will.

Christian McCaffrey is coming off of an injury-plagued season and is going to need time to work his way back into the offense.

By midseason, the Carolina Panthers should be building game plans around their star running back. But for Week 1, this would be a big mistake for a team who still doesn’t know what McCaffrey is going to look like in a competitive environment.

McCaffrey is certainly important, but this Carolina team should be able to find a winning formula not centered around the All-Pro against the New York Jets.

Working him slowly into the offense and allowing Sam Darnold and their myriad of receivers to do the heavy lifting offensively during their season-opener should be considered. Although it wouldn’t be the biggest shock to see McCaffrey hit the ground running.

McCaffrey is a top-three running back in this league and is in for a bounce-back season.

But Carolina must remember just that, it is a comeback season for a player coming off a year where he featured just three times.