Williams: Barring injury, McCaffrey will be NFL Rookie of the Year
Aug 3, 2017, 12:00 AM | Updated: 4:16 am
McCaffrey got Luke with the juke moves pic.twitter.com/q7IA1s6EU0
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) August 2, 2017
Denver native and NFL rookie Christian McCaffrey made headlines Wednesday after the Carolina Panthers posted to Twitter a video of the running back put three-time All-Pro linebacker Luke Keuchly on skates with a juke move during practice.
As of Wednesday evening, the original tweet had earned 10,000 likes and 4,600 retweets, and McCaffrey was being mentioned in the same breath as guys like Reggie Bush and Barry Sanders.
It’s been quite the journey for McCaffrey, the son of former Denver Broncos wide receiver Ed McCaffrey, from attending high school in south suburban Denver to being the Heisman runner up at Stanford to going in the top 10 during this year’s NFL Draft.
And Alfred Williams and DMac, from “The Drive,” watched McCaffrey’s career unfold the entire way.
“My teams have been playing against his teams and Ed’s teams for years. Didn’t have a lot of success against him,” Williams said on Wednesday.
And that journey, Big Al said, barring injury, should lead McCaffrey to the stage at the NFL Honors next February, where he’ll be picking up the league’s offensive rookie of the year award.
“We tried to say that it wasn’t real when he played here in Colorado because of the competition. Who knows whether or not the competition was good enough? When he moved to Stanford, we said, OK, let’s see him do well at Stanford and see if he up to that level of competition at Stanford,” Williams said.
“Well, he was up to that level, and he’s certainly earned the right to be called one of the best college football players of all time. And now, early on in his NFL career, barring injury, I’m telling you right now he is going to be the rookie of the year.”
Williams pointed to McCaffrey’s versatility out of the backfield as a major reason why he believes the young offensive threat will take home the hardware, as demonstrated in the video wherein he not only jukes Keuchly out of his shoes but does so after catching the ball out of the backfield.
“Because the Carolina Panthers run so much different offense, and they will use him in packages to get one-on-ones with linebackers and safeties, I think the NFL Rookie of the Year is going to be Christian McCaffrey,” Williams said.
Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.
