5 Carolina Panthers who deserved better throughout franchise history

Christian McCaffrey – Carolina Panthers RB

This may seem like an odd inclusion for a player unable to stay healthy over the last two seasons. But bear with the reasoning for a moment.

The running back position has a short shelf life. Even the most elite players need to be properly utilized if you hope to keep them healthy over a prolonged period.

Coming off of a serious injury, the Carolina Panthers had Christian McCaffrey touch the ball 59 times during the first two weeks of the 2021 season. Not deploying a measured approach to ease the former first-round pick back or giving him fewer carries cost them in a big way.

The team built the entire offense around a player who hasn’t been able to stay healthy. They paid for it in Week 3 when McCaffrey went down again.

The volume of touches that Matt Rhule and the offense insisted on giving McCaffrey coming off of a major injury was ill-advised from the start.

This isn’t to say if the team had taken a conservative approach things would have been different. However, it certainly couldn’t have hurt and might have changed the course of Carolina’s season.

McCaffrey, much like his former quarterback Cam Newton, has continually taken hits in the backfield and put his body on the line for a team that hasn’t built much around him offensively. He has taken a lot of punishment and something has to give moving forward.

Anything less will likely come with grave consequences.