Christian McCaffrey responds after fans notice his radically different physique
It’s not at all uncommon for people to make resolutions about losing weight or getting in better shape.
In fact, getting in better shape is probably an annual expectation for a professional athlete.
Having said that, it still seems like Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey may have taken the whole “a new year, a new you” conceit a little far.
Here is McCaffrey during the NFL combine in 2017.
Clearly, he was in the physical shape you’d expect a first-round running back talent to be, and he was taken eighth overall by Carolina.
From there, McCaffrey, currently still just 21, didn’t quite live up to the expectations of being a top-10 NFL draft pick.
His up-and-down rookie season highlighted what many of his detractors were saying about him. Chiefly, the knock against McCaffrey was that he’s better suited to be a receiving running back a la Dion Lewis than a traditional running back.
Seemingly taking the criticism to heart, McCaffrey understandably bulked up for his sophomore season.
Some fans were still taken aback by just how much he has bulked up.
“Damn [my boy Christian McCaffrey] Got big real quick,” one commentator said.
“[Christian McCaffrey] your arms are tree trunks,” another commentator mentioned.
“Somebody’s been eating their spinach!!!” a third comment read.
Now, the ultimate cynic would naturally gravitate toward PEDs, but that conspiracy theory won’t bear fruit unless McCaffrey gets suspended in his sophomore campaign. McCaffrey, for his part, doesn’t think it’s a big deal at all.
“Everybody’s acting like I was tiny last year and now I’ve had this big growth,” McCaffrey said after the first week of OTA’s, per Panthers.com. “It’s not like I’ve transformed.”
McCaffrey, who was listed at 203 pounds last season, claims that he’s only tipping the scales at 208 pounds now.
“I’ve gained about five pounds of good muscle,” McCaffrey said. “My core strength, my upper body strength and my lower body … I’m just trying to increase all those. Make sure I can break tackles in the second level and be able to turn those 3-, 4-yard runs into some bigger runs.”
Those “bigger runs” will be key for his growth. Per Football Outsiders, McCaffrey was a top-five player in terms of breaking tackles after receptions. As a runner, McCaffrey was a far less impressive 36th when it came to breaking tackles.
“It’s not like I’ve found some secret sauce that’s going to make me break tackles. It’s really just continuing to train and continuing to get better in every area and eventually that stuff will come,” McCaffrey said. “It’s nothing I haven’t been doing. It’s just continuing to work.”
Despite his new physique, McCaffrey made sure to point out that he’s not planning on turning into Jerome Bettis.
“We’ll see. I just want to play where I feel fastest, where I feel most explosive, where I feel most comfortable,” he said. “I don’t want to be too heavy or too light. I just go off comfort. If I grow, I grow. I think I’m definitely still growing. I’m 21 still, so hopefully, as I get older and older, I’ll continue to grow physically and mentally.”
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