Carolina Panthers officially have a Christian McCaffrey problem

The Carolina Panthers officially have a problem with Christian McCaffrey after the running back’s season was cut short through injury once again.

Another season cut short for Christian McCaffrey.

A body blow to the dwindling hopes surrounding the Carolina Panthers and potential postseason football in 2021.

The star running back was seldom seen in the second half during Carolina’s disappointing loss at the Miami Dolphins after rolling his ankle. Although the X-rays came back negative on Monday, an MRI revealed a complication that forced the Panthers to place McCaffrey on season-ending injured reserve.

This is the second time in as many campaigns that McCaffrey’s suffered significant injury problems. He turned out just three times in 2020 and after missing five contests earlier this season, his final tally for 2021 stands at seven.

Not exactly ideal for a team that has been over-reliant on McCaffrey almost from the moment he joined the Panthers as a first-round pick back in 2017.

How ironic that these complications began to surface soon after McCaffrey penned a four-year, $64 million contract extension that included a $21.5 million signing bonus and $33 million guaranteed.

He hadn’t missed a single game before this point.

Now, the Panthers have a real problem on their hands.

Christian McCaffrey cannot be relied upon heavily moving forward.

McCaffrey is an elite performer when fit and firing on all cylinders. But the simple fact of the matter is he cannot be relied upon to put a consistent run of games together anymore.

There is plenty of blame to go around, obviously.

The coaching staff has given McCaffrey far too much say in how many touches he gets on any given weekend. And the player himself also needs to carry the can for putting his body through a workload that was bound to catch up with him eventually.

The history and dangers of paying players at the position top dollar are well documented. One only has to look at the talent currently on the shelf across the league to see that.

It is one of the more violent to play. One that usually comes with an extremely short shelf-life unless your name is Frank Gore or Adrian Peterson.

Something’s got to give with McCaffrey. Either his carries drop significantly or the Panthers look to take a drastic approach and move on from the All-Pro this offseason.

Trading someone with McCaffrey’s contract and recent injury history would be difficult. Teams aren’t foolish when it comes to this sort of thing and are much more inclined to take their chances on a promising college prospect instead.

Carolina needs to adopt a multi-back approach moving forward. Chuba Hubbard and Ameer Abdullah have both flashed this season – which would help and perhaps even allow McCaffrey to occupy the slot receiver position more prominently than he ever has before.

Plenty of options on the table. But the Panthers have to find a way to function without McCaffrey better than they’ve managed to accomplish during the last two seasons.

Until they do this, McCaffrey will be overworked and similar problems won’t be too far away next season.

It’s been a rough few days for the Panthers. In McCaffrey’s case, it’s such a shame that things have fallen in this manner once again.

However, there weren’t many that didn’t see this coming. And that’s the saddest part of all.