Christian McCaffrey: 0.45
Even though the Carolina Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this week, their victory definitely wasn’t the result of an excellent rushing performance by star running back Christian McCaffrey. He totaled a measly 31 yards on 21 attempts, for an average of 1.4 yards per carry. His OSM grade of 0.45 was the worst of any running back so far in Week 6, and one of the worst grades overall. A grade that low essentially implies that McCaffrey contributed virtually nothing to his own statistics, or to the offense as a whole. At least this week, you could have put just about any NFL running back in McCaffrey’s place and had the same result.
McCaffrey’s low yards per carry number was a big factor in his grade, but he performed poorly in just about every possible metric. For example, he was easily the least efficient running back of the past week. According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, he ran 9.77 yards for every actual yard he gained, more than the next highest total by almost 2 yards. To make matters worse, he faced eight defenders in the box just 13.64% of the time, the ninth-lowest among qualifying running backs. So, in theory, all that dancing around shouldn’t have been necessary.
Admittedly, judging McCaffrey’s performance so harshly is perhaps a little unfair. After all, the Buccaneers are allowing fewer rushing yards per game than any other team in the NFL. Still, McCaffrey has been getting a lot of positive press recently, with many dubbing him the NFL’s best running back. So, to see him get almost completely shut down as a runner is a little disappointing, even if it could have been predicted.