At long last, great news for Christian McCaffrey managers — injury concerns are dissipating, and he’s been designated to return from the injured reserve. A strained hamstring has sidelined the Panthers’ franchise RB since Week 4. Should fantasy football managers excitedly add McCaffrey to their starting lineups ahead of Week 9, or is there good reason to feel a bit wary?
Christian McCaffrey Injury Update: When will the Panthers RB play?
In 2019, McCaffrey famously racked up 2,392 total yards of offense and 19 TDs on 403 touches. He entered the 2020 campaign having never missed an NFL game in three seasons. But since then, he has missed 18 of 24 contests (75%) while rushing for only 3.9 yards per carry, well below his career average.
When the dust cleared after his early Week 3 exit in Houston, Panthers head coach Matt Rhule decided not to place his star back on injured reserve. The assumption was that McCaffrey would return by Week 6. Things looked hopeful as he started practicing ahead of Weeks 5 and 6, but he was ruled out both times. Only then did the team opt to put him on IR. This generated another three-week period without the key cog in their ground attack.
Now that he’s been designated to return from IR, can we breathe a sigh of relief? Will McCaffrey be back in Week 9? Not so fast. On Monday, Rhule stated, “Hopefully, we can get Christian back soon. If it’s not this week, hopefully, it will be next week.”
This remains an uphill climb. Yes, the return window has opened. But McCaffrey’s Week 9 status remains as up in the air as it did 3-4 weeks ago.
What is McCaffrey’s fantasy outlook in Week 9 and beyond?
Here’s the thing about McCaffrey — aside from Derrick Henry, possibly no RB is more heavily utilized. In his three games last year, Carolina’s elite back averaged an incredible 25.3 touches, putting him on pace to break his career-high total in 2019.
This year, he averaged 29.5 touches in his first two games, followed by 9 more in the first 18 minutes of Week 3 before getting knocked out. Even for a 16-game season, that was a 475-touch pace.
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I would be shocked if Carolina works him that hard when he returns. With Chuba Hubbard filling in adequately and Royce Freeman/Ameer Abdullah providing middling veteran support, the team won’t lose much if McCaffrey is earning two-thirds of his normal workload. And 16-20 touches per game would still make him one of the league’s most heavily utilized RBs.
I would advise caution with McCaffrey going forward. RB1 production is entirely realistic. As for a return to elite production, I think we’ll have to wait until at least 2022.