Christian McCaffrey Workload in 2021

[kungfoodude]

Mike Davis is gone but in the fifth round we draft a talented RB in Chuba Hubbard. As we are all more than aware, Ron Rivera's offenses seemed to revolve around your best offensive player carrying the overwhelming bulk of the usage(see Newton, Cam for other examples). 

Interestingly, in just three games of action last year, CMC was on pace for his highest rushing usage rate yet at 19.7 rushes per game, even higher than his 17.9 rushes per game in 2019. However, his usage in the passing game dipped from his 2019 usage as he averaged just 6.3 targets per game from a high of 8.9 targets per game in 2019(7.1 TGTS/GM in 2017 and 7.8 TGTS/GM in 2018). So his overall usage rate was only 0.8 touches per game less in 2020 than 2019.

After a season which was mired with injuries and drafting a talented young RB, will we finally see CMC get spelled more? Or will his usage rate continue to climb in 2021?

[TheRumGone]

I’m hoping the amount of touches had more to do with shitty qb play and Sam can elevate his play and not be heavily reliant on a high CMC workload. We need to get the most bang for our buck with this rb contract. If we don’t I expect him to finish out the contract with missing games from injury.

The cap hits go 14 mill 2022, 17 2024 then 17 2024. We have a chance to get out of the contract in 2024 with a 7 mill dead cap hit if the numbers I’m looking at are right. Gonna suck really bad if he’s not on the field producing. Honestly I’d like to see him moved to the slot more long term and get someone else to run more from the backfield. But that’s down the road. 

Edited May 30, 2021 by TheRumGone

[TheRumGone]

Also I’m a bit skeptical of Chuba. He ran through wide open holes at OKS. He’s not gonna have that luxury in the nfl. His speed his ridiculous. But I’m not sure if we have the line to make it work for him. Hopefully he can adapt, grow and be reliable. 

[L-TownCat]

I guess it’s a philosophical question.  Do you use you’re best player as much as humanly possible to win, or do you put him on a pitch count and risk losing while not utilizing said best player?

Coaches are people too.  They have to do what’s in their best interest to survive.

Christian will never request fewer touches.  He will tell them he wants all the touches.  That’s what football players do. (See Newton, Cam for other examples)

I think they’ll use him depending on the situation.  If they need him to carry the load, he will.  If they don’t, hopefully that’s when we see Chubba.

But to answer the OP, I bet it all stays pretty much the same but with CMC getting spot relief in a few games where he didn’t before.

[top dawg]

34 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Mike Davis is gone but in the fifth round we draft a talented RB in Chuba Hubbard. As we are all more than aware, Ron Rivera's offenses seemed to revolve around your best offensive player carrying the overwhelming bulk of the usage(see Newton, Cam for other examples). 

Interestingly, in just three games of action last year, CMC was on pace for his highest rushing usage rate yet at 19.7 rushes per game, even higher than his 17.9 rushes per game in 2019. However, his usage in the passing game dipped from his 2019 usage as he averaged just 6.3 targets per game from a high of 8.9 targets per game in 2019(7.1 TGTS/GM in 2017 and 7.8 TGTS/GM in 2018). So his overall usage rate was only 0.8 touches per game less in 2020 than 2019.

After a season which was mired with injuries and drafting a talented young RB, will we finally see CMC get spelled more? Or will his usage rate continue to climb in 2021?

Selling Chuba short already? He was drafted in the fourth.

I think CMC's rushing usage will purposefully be kept to somewhere between 15-20 carries per game. Although it seems hard to keep him off the field, I believe that last year was a lesson learned by the brass, and as such his load will be monitored. I believe that Chuba was drafted with spelling CMC in mind in as seamless a manner as possible because of his potential to be legitimately dynamic in his own right. He is at least as fast as CMC and can catch. I'm not sure if he's as lightning quick as CMC with the jukes (including hops), or has CMC's great field vision, but at worst he's a marked upgrade over the older and slower Mike Davis. He is dangerous once he gets to the second level, but he does run with some power, and can pick up those 5 yard runs in between the tackles.

 

[OldhamA]

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

Mike Davis is gone but in the fifth round we draft a talented RB in Chuba Hubbard. As we are all more than aware, Ron Rivera's offenses seemed to revolve around your best offensive player carrying the overwhelming bulk of the usage(see Newton, Cam for other examples). 

Interestingly, in just three games of action last year, CMC was on pace for his highest rushing usage rate yet at 19.7 rushes per game, even higher than his 17.9 rushes per game in 2019. However, his usage in the passing game dipped from his 2019 usage as he averaged just 6.3 targets per game from a high of 8.9 targets per game in 2019(7.1 TGTS/GM in 2017 and 7.8 TGTS/GM in 2018). So his overall usage rate was only 0.8 touches per game less in 2020 than 2019.

After a season which was mired with injuries and drafting a talented young RB, will we finally see CMC get spelled more? Or will his usage rate continue to climb in 2021?

Considering they benched McCaffrey when he absolutely would have been out there if we were in the middle of a playoff run, I'm leaning towards the idea that they'll spell him much more than Rivera did. 

You also might see him lined up wide more - we basically had a homeless man's version of McCaffrey eating into his snaps in Samuel.

[Ready 2 Win]

CMC can get all the short passes he wants as far as I am concerned.

However those dedicated runs worry me. Tough kid but we really dont have much of a backup, and it only takes one fat lineman to fall on him in the pile for him to get hurt. I'd like to see his runs limited to 12-15

[Snake]

Don't sleep on Hubbard. He can block and run at a high level. His only downfall may be he isn't the best Receiver. 

[KatsAzz]

I am somewhat concerned, like many others about the amount of work CMC gets. However, I think the reason the backfield got so much work was because Rhule/Brady didn’t have the dynamic QB play they were looking for.

If Darnold can ball out, maybe the backfield touches slide a little in favor of WRs and TEs, then Chubba can get some touches, even with a healthy CMC.

Edited May 30, 2021 by KatsAzz

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, TheRumGone said:

I’m hoping the amount of touches had more to do with shitty qb play and Sam can elevate his play and not be heavily reliant on a high CMC workload. We need to get the most bang for our buck with this rb contract. If we don’t I expect him to finish out the contract with missing games from injury.

The cap hits go 14 mill 2022, 17 2024 then 17 2024. We have a chance to get out of the contract in 2024 with a 7 mill dead cap hit if the numbers I’m looking at are right. Gonna suck really bad if he’s not on the field producing. Honestly I’d like to see him moved to the slot more long term and get someone else to run more from the backfield. But that’s down the road. 

Well, the bulk of his work was before we knew Teddy was that bad. I am curious to see if our philosophy isn't that dissimilar from Turner in terms of running everything through him.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, L-TownCat said:

I guess it’s a philosophical question.  Do you use you’re best player as much as humanly possible to win, or do you put him on a pitch count and risk losing while not utilizing said best player?

Coaches are people too.  They have to do what’s in their best interest to survive.

Christian will never request fewer touches.  He will tell them he wants all the touches.  That’s what football players do. (See Newton, Cam for other examples)

I think they’ll use him depending on the situation.  If they need him to carry the load, he will.  If they don’t, hopefully that’s when we see Chubba.

But to answer the OP, I bet it all stays pretty much the same but with CMC getting spot relief in a few games where he didn’t before.

Yeah, my fear is that we continue running the wheels off him. I would like to see Hubbard get maybe 10-20% of the load(if he is capable) and maybe save some of this wear wnd tear on our most expensive offensive asset(and best offensive player).

I know RB's have short shelf lives anyway but I would like to see him preserved at least until the end of his current contract.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, top dawg said:

Selling Chuba short already? He was drafted in the fourth.

I think CMC's rushing usage will purposefully be kept to somewhere between 15-20 carries per game. Although it seems hard to keep him off the field, I believe that last year was a lesson learned by the brass, and as such his load will be monitored. I believe that Chuba was drafted with spelling CMC in mind in as seamless a manner as possible because of his potential to be legitimately dynamic in his own right. He is at least as fast as CMC and can catch. I'm not sure if he's as lightning quick as CMC with the jukes (including hops), or has CMC's great field vision, but at worst he's a marked upgrade over the older and slower Mike Davis. He is dangerous once he gets to the second level, but he does run with some power, and can pick up those 5 yard runs in between the tackles.

 

I am not selling him short, moreso concerned about overusing CMC.

[frankw]

If we are facing the dilemma of limiting his snap count the contract is already a loss. He is very talented but he has quite a few miles dating back to even Stanford so at this point the writing is on the wall. We can't go back in time but we really need production so if that means lining him up wherever to open things up for the rest of the offense do that. Surely someone will be racking up yards with the amount of offensive talent we have now.

[TheRumGone]

47 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Well, the bulk of his work was before we knew Teddy was that bad. I am curious to see if our philosophy isn't that dissimilar from Turner in terms of running everything through him.

Kyle Allen and I think the coaches were well aware of teddy’s limitations beginning of last year.