5 recent Carolina Panthers departures who were missed most in 2021
By Dean Jones
Mike Davis – Former Carolina Panthers RB
Losing Christian McCaffrey for nine more games this season was not what the running back or the Carolina Panthers had in mind. The All-Pro has now missed 19 contests over a two-year period and unless something drastic changes, then handing him a lucrative contract was a critical error in judgment by those in power at the time.
Mike Davis performed well during McCaffrey’s absence in 2020, providing a solid foundation en route to more than 1,000 yards from scrimmage. This obviously didn’t go unnoticed by other teams across the league, with the Atlanta Falcons swooping in to take the power back off their NFC South division rivals.
Nobody has a crystal ball to see into the future.
If the Panthers did, they would never have let Davis walk.
McCaffrey started brightly before getting hurt in Week 3 and things were never quite the same after that. Carolina’s offense had no real Plan B without their best offensive weapon and it didn’t take long for Sam Darnold to regress without his premier security blanket alongside him in the backfield.
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Davis ended up playing second-fiddle in Atlanta thanks to the emergence of Cordarrelle Patterson. But that should not detract from what a superb asset he’d have been to the Panthers considering McCaffrey’s situation.