NFL Power Rankings 2020: Ranking every starting running back

1. Christian McCaffrey, Carolina Panthers

While New Orleans’ Michael Thomas won the Offensive Player of the Year award in 2019, Christian McCaffrey could’ve easily taken the award home. The third-year running back broke into the NFL record books and earned a First-Team All-Pro selection in 2019. As a reward for his incredible production, Carolina signed McCaffrey to a four-year, $64 million contract extension.

After producing 3,051 yards from scrimmage and 20 touchdowns during his first two seasons, McCaffrey broke out last year. He amassed 2,392 yards from scrimmage and 19 touchdowns, which both led the NFL. He also became the third running back to record 1,000 rushing and receiving yards in a single season, joining Roger Craig and Marshall Faulk.

McCaffrey entered the record books for several other feats last year. He broke his own single-season record for receptions by a running back, amassing 116. That mark set Carolina’s single-season franchise record. McCaffrey also became the fourth player overall in league history with 100 or more receptions in two of his first three seasons, according to NFL Research.

McCaffrey is currently producing 1,814 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns per season, which is an insane pace. For comparison, during the best three year stretch of his career (2017-19), Todd Gurley averaged 1,662 yards from scrimmage and 18 touchdowns per season. However, Gurley ran into a wall this past year. Now that he’s the highest-paid running back in NFL history, we’ll see if McCaffrey can maintain his production.

The Panthers could give McCaffrey another large workload in 2020. The team did sign free-agent quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and wide receiver Robby Anderson to fix the passing game, but neither are truly reliable players. With Luke Kuechly retiring and Cam Newton getting cut, McCaffrey is the alpha dog in Carolina.