Thought exercise for the day...

[Chopper0080]

If Christian McCaffrey's value is his ability to be weapon in the running game, passing game and the return game, why is the board/team against the idea of David Johnson as a kick returner? Yes, you would have to have another RB to take 5 or so snaps a game, but aren't we limiting DJ's value by not letting him do something he is so good at doing?

 

[football karma]

punts would be one thing -- kickoffs another. Im not sure DJ has ever returned a punt.

i suspect if McCaffery becomes Carolina's main back -- you wont see him on kickoff returns, and, likely only for certain punt returns.

 

[crisper57]

My guess is they want to protect him from the play that (according to the NFL reasoning) produces the most injuries in the game. Now that teams are likely to pooch kick more, I wonder if they don't want to risk him bringing the ball out.

And I never really see him as punt returner because if a team wanted neutralize him, they could simply dive into his knee while he is fielding a kick, take the 15 yard penalty and fine, and completely screw our season (don't tell me the Rams wouldn't do it).

 

[Bodha]

injury exposure


The payoff is so rarely worth the risk of putting a superstar in the line of fire. Its why PP isnt a punt returner anymore. Maybe 1 or 2 TDs per season are not worth the 100 opportunities to get a concussion or blow a knee like Tyrann.

 

[cardsfanmd]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap20...dinals-tyrann-mathieu-likely-tore-acl-vs-rams

 

[Russ Smith]

I actually have to do a mea culpa on McCaffrey I fully expected him to fall on draft day because there's so few really good white RB's I figured NFL teams would do a follow the herd thing and let him slide. Very happy he went that high he's a very good player.

I think the way Newton moves in and out of the pocket it will be very effective having a RB as good out of the backfield as CM is.

 

[JeffGollin]

Get us two more DJ clones and maybe then he can return punts and kicks.

It's unfortunate but true that we have to consider key players as "investment property" to be protected at all costs.

We're not deep enough at RB to put our key asset at-risk. (Note - Of course if we had a couple of DJ clones, they could return punts and kicks instead of DJ).

Regarding McCaffery - what Carolina chooses to do with him should have nothing to do with how we use our own star RB. (Different strokes for different folks).

On a parallel note - Anyone have a take on how close Curtis Samuel comes to McCaffery in terms what it takes to be an all purpose RB-receiver-returner?

 

[kerouac9]

Well, besides the runback in his first game, was David Johnson that good returning kicks? 23 YPR after the first one (21 runbacks). And he lost his job because he fumbled a couple times. Brittan Golden, who is trash, had 24.2 YPR last year.

I don't ever really expect for McCaffery to get more than 8 rushes a game; I think everyone expects David Johnson to get that.

 

[TJ]

DJ is going to be counted on to tote the rock 20+ times per game and get 8-10 targets in the passing game, as well. His workload is already high as it is. If he's returning kicks, that's ~5 extra touches with dudes coming at you like a heat seeking missile.


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