Christian McCaffrey

Early years

McCaffrey attended Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. He played running back, wide receiver, cornerback and punter. He broke numerous Colorado high school records including career total touchdowns (141), career all purpose yards (8,845), career touchdown receptions (47) and single season all-purpose yards (3,032). He was the Gatorade Football Player of the Year for Colorado in both 2012 and 2013. He also played basketball.

McCaffrey was also a standout sprinter on the track & field team. As a junior in 2012, he placed second in the 100-meter dash at the Mountain Vista Boulder Invitational with a career-best time of 10.75 seconds. As a senior in 2013, he finished sixth in the 100-meter dash (10.89s) and ninth in the 200-meter dash (22.17s) at the CHSAA State Meet.

One of the best one hundred football players in his national high school class, McCaffrey was selected as a 2014 U.S. Army All-American. McCaffrey was rated by Rivals.com as a four-star recruit and was ranked as the third best all-purpose back in his class and 77th best player overall. He committed to Stanford University to play college football.

2014 season

McCaffrey played in all 13 games as a true freshman at Stanford in 2014. He finished the year with 300 rushing yards on 43 carries and 251 receiving yards on 17 receptions with two total touchdowns.

2015 season

McCaffrey had a breakout sophomore season in 2015. He broke Barry Sanders's NCAA record of 3,250 all-purpose yards, finishing with 3,864. Sanders's son Barry J. Sanders coincidentally happened to be one of McCaffrey's teammates that year. McCaffrey ranked second in the nation with 2,019 rushing yards, becoming the first Stanford player to rush for 2,000 in a season. He also set numerous other Stanford records during the season including rushing yards in a game (243) and all-purpose yards in a game (461).

McCaffrey was a consensus All-American and was the Associated Press College Football Player of the Year, Pac-12 Player of the Year and Paul Hornung Award winner. He also finished second to Derrick Henry in the 2015 Heisman Trophy voting.

During the 2016 Rose Bowl, McCaffrey became the first player to rush for over 100 yards (172) and have over 100 yards receiving (109) in a Rose Bowl game. Overall, he set a new Rose Bowl record with 368 all-purpose yards, breaking the previous record set in 2012 by Wisconsin’s Jared Abbrederis.

2016 season

Through the end of the 2016 regular season, McCaffrey led the nation in all purpose yards (211.6 yards per game). He led the Pac-12 in rushing yards (1,603) and ranked fourth in the nation in rushing yards per game (145.7). McCaffrey set a Stanford single-game rushing record with 284 rushing yards against California. In 2016, McCaffrey was named to the All-Pac-12 first team and was named the CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year. After the season, he decided to enter the 2017 NFL Draft.

On December 19, McCaffrey announced he would not participate in the team's Sun Bowl game against North Carolina, opting to skip the game to prepare for the draft. His decision was met with mixed reactions; supporters agreed it was a smart decision, while those opposing considered the move selfish, and potentially detrimental to college football should other players follow suit. Radio host Mike Greenberg, in defense of McCaffrey, said, "Calling Christian McCaffrey a quitter for skipping an exhibition game to prepare for his career is the height of just not getting it." On December 30, 2016, the Cardinal won the game without McCaffrey, beating North Carolina 25-22, and they subsequently finished #18 in the final CFP rankings. The Sun Bowl was not the first high-profile game McCaffrey missed that season: he also sat out the Cardinal's 17-10 victory in the 2016 edition of the Notre Dame-Stanford rivalry on October 15, after being injured during the previous week's 42-16 loss to Washington State.

Professional career

McCaffrey received an invitation to the NFL Combine as one of the top running back prospects entering the draft and completed all of the required combine drills and participated in positional drills. He attended Stanford's Pro Day, but was satisfied with his combine numbers and only ran positional drills for the NFL scouts and representatives. McCaffrey was projected to be a first round pick by the majority of NFL experts and analysts. He was ranked the third best running back in the draft by Sports Illustrated, the fourth best running back by Pro Football Focus, and ranked the second best by NFLDraftScout.com and ESPN.

The Carolina Panthers selected McCaffrey with the eighth overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. On May 4, the Panthers signed McCaffrey to a four-year, $17.2 million contract with the signing bonus of $10.7 million.

Personal life

Christian's father, Ed McCaffrey, played college football at Stanford and in the NFL (mostly for the Denver Broncos) from 1991 to 2003. His mother, Lisa Sime, played soccer at Stanford. His older brother, Max, played football at Duke University. His younger brother, Dylan, is a true freshman quarterback at the University of Michigan. His youngest brother, Luke, has multiple offers for football. His uncle, Billy McCaffrey, played college basketball at Duke University and Vanderbilt University. His maternal grandfather is Dave Sime, an Olympic track star.