You can have your Saquon Barkleys and Alvin Kamaras, your Dalvin Cooks and Ezekiel Elliotts.
In 2019, they are all great NFL running backs. But for my money, at this particular moment, the best running back in the league resides in Charlotte and plays for the Carolina Panthers.
Christian McCaffrey, still only 23, took a massive leap from his rookie year in 2017 to his second season. But No. 22 looks even better in 2019 _ a little quicker, a little stronger, a little more explosive.
With 450 total yards through three games _ 318 rushing, 132 receiving _ McCaffrey is second only to Cook (454 yards) in total yards from scrimmage for all NFL running backs and receivers. And I bet he will overtake Cook soon.
As for the rest of the competition: Barkley is extremely dynamic but reportedly may miss the next month or two of the season with a high-ankle sprain. Elliott isn't as good a pass-catcher. Kamara is similar to McCaffrey and bigger, but the Saints don't use him as much as Carolina uses McCaffrey.
McCaffrey is popular among fantasy football players because of his versatility and his heavy workload. But what's happening this season for him is no fantasy.
It's reality that McCaffrey's 76-yard touchdown run Sunday against Arizona was not only a career long for him but also the longest TD run in the team's 25-season history. Think about that for a second: The Panthers have played 387 regular-season games, and that play was the longest rushing touchdown we have ever seen.
When asked repeatedly about the 76-yarder after the game, McCaffrey gave his offensive line credit about 10 times and then made like the run itself was no big deal.
"I got to the second level, the safety was on me, I made him miss _ and then you just have to outrun everyone," McCaffrey shrugged.
In McCaffrey, the Panthers have a weapon who never comes off the field, catches the ball as well as most NFL wide receivers (107 receptions and zero drops in 2018) and runs with passion both inside and out. He can return punts and kicks, although the Panthers have judged him too valuable to do that. McCaffrey has a wider range of skills than any other NFL running back, even serving as the Panthers' emergency quarterback when needed (he has a small stable of plays he can run).
McCaffrey made Kyle Allen's first start simpler Sunday in Carolina's 38-20 win, and he has been helping Cam Newton ever since the Panthers made him the eighth overall pick in the 2017 draft.
It was Newton who had the best description of McCaffrey's role in the Carolina offense earlier this year. Asked to describe McCaffrey, Newton reeled off a string of analogies: "An outlet. Safety valve. Rescue button. Life harness. An easy button. Ol' go-to."
McCaffrey isn't perfect. He's not always able to stonewall a blitzing linebacker when he's in pass protection. And he's not an absolute slam dunk in short-yardage situations like the way "Cam Newton 1.0" was, because McCaffrey is not a bulldozer. McCaffrey is a modest 5-foot-11 and 205 pounds. He couldn't get a yard on fourth-and-1 from the 2 against Tampa Bay on Sept. 12 and later said, "Coach put the ball in my hands at the end of the game _ and I blew it."
But Sunday's game against Arizona showed what McCaffrey can do. Tampa Bay bottled him up for long stretches of the game by concentrating on McCaffrey and daring Newton to throw. But Arizona couldn't make the same strategy work _ in large part due to the efficiency of Allen when he threw. That gave McCaffrey a few more lanes. He ended up with 153 rushing yards and 35 more receiving.
Sunday at Houston, those numbers might be reversed. McCaffrey is sort of like the NBA's trend toward "position-less" basketball _ he is a wide receiver on one play and a running back the next two. One of the few goals McCaffrey has ever mentioned publicly is his wish to become the third NFL running back (after Roger Craig and Marshall Faulk) to eclipse 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards in the same reason. McCaffrey came close in 2018, but fell 133 receiving yards short. Although overshadowed by the team's seven-game losing streak, I still thought it was the best overall season any Panthers running back has ever had.
That 1,000-1,000 goal requires a lot of touches, which brings up the question: Should McCaffrey play fewer snaps?
McCaffrey played more snaps than any running back in 2018 and may well do so again this season. He doesn't like to come off the field _ he has played 199 of Carolina's 204 offensive snaps this season. This is partly because offensive coordinator Norv Turner doesn't like the "running-back-by-committee" system that so many teams employ and instead likes to feed an elite running back in every game, as he did for Emmitt Smith and LaDainian Tomlinson.
