How will the Panthers use both Christian McCaffrey & Mike Davis?

Run CMC is back to practice this week after suffering a high ankle sprain during Week 2 of the 2020 NFL season. Matt Harmon and Dalton Del Don delve into the fantasy outlook for both Christian McCaffrey and his running mate Mike Davis.

Video Transcript

MATT HARMON: We don't know yet if he's going to play on Thursday night. Panthers play the Falcons on Thursday night. It would be a great spot for him to return.

Obviously, it's a short week for them. How do you project this backfield now with McCaffrey back? Because Matt Rhule is even set himself like, he doesn't see-- he doesn't see Mike Davis going away. He said, he's still going to play even when McCaffrey's back. But what do you think that split looks like?

DALTON DEL DON: If he's active, what-- I would treat both of them as start-able. Certainly, McCaffrey, obviously, you're playing. But I think Mike Davis will be involved enough. And if you look at trying to rank running backs, it's ugly from 25 on.

MATT HARMON: Ugly, yep.

DALTON DEL DON: So especially because of the targets he gets and McCaffrey coming back. And obviously, from such a semi serious injury. And the good match-up too, at home against Falcons.

So I would play both, for sure. I would definitely be using Mike Davis as a flex type starter, even if CMC is active. At least this week.

MATT HARMON: Yeah this week, I mean, this is a good spot for you to-- if you have either Davis or McCaffrey. Hopefully, if you have both, it's sort of-- you're sort of in a bind there. But like--

DALTON DEL DON: Oh, yeah.

MATT HARMON: --it you have Mike Davis, I think you can feel pretty good that if both of these guys are active, because of the match-up that they're in, like, this is a perfect spot for you. It probably couldn't have gotten it-- gone any better than that. Because you can just throw these guys out there no matter what.

Now it's worth noting, that like, over the last two weeks, the match ups have been a little bit more tough. Obviously, the Bears have a very good defense and the Saints are very underrated as a rush defense. But Mike Davis has definitely started to slow down that pace that he maintained against the Chargers, the Cardinals and these Atlanta Falcons.

Caught two passes against the Bears. Caught five passes against the Saints, which sort of buoyed his fantasy floor. And then scored a rushing touchdown against the Bears the previous week, which buoyed that floor. But 2.9 yards per carry against the Bears. 1.7 yards per carry against the Saints.

Just seven carries on the ground, in general. I think this offense like-- it's worth discussing this potential split. I do think that it will go back to sort of being an 80-20 sort of situation. Like they're going to spell McCaffrey with Mike Davis.

DALTON DEL DON: Yeah.

MATT HARMON: But even that is a big difference than how we've seen McCaffrey used in previous years. Like the last two seasons, especially in 2019, McCaffrey was like basically a 99% snap player. Like he-- even when they had CJ Anderson on the roster in 2018, that North Turner coaching staff was pretty much like, forget it.

We're going to just throw this guy out there on every single possible play. So that alone, like even Davis taking 20% of the touches. And, you know, this is just pulling numbers out of thin air. Like, that would be a big difference to the point that McCaffrey might be, when he comes back, you know, the seventh, the sixth best running back in fantasy.

Which is great, but it might be a little bit less of an impact, especially coming off an injury. The first, probably, real big serious injury of his career. It could force him, like I said, down to that sixth, seventh running back in fantasy. And not like, he the clear cut, number one overall pick that he was coming into this year.

DALTON DEL DON: Yeah. It was really nice. He was getting nearly 100% of the snaps, no doubt. But that, yeah, it will probably take away 15% to 20% with the way Mike Davis is shown. One thing I will note is Atlanta has been this, like, pass funnel defense, ranking 31st in DVOA against the pass, and just seventh against the run.

So they haven't been horrible, but obviously, a home game at over under near 50. They should get some goal line scores and I do like the set up here, for Carolina, either way. But yeah, I think CMC is still moving forward after this week.

And then he'll have 10 days to recover. Maybe, yeah. Maybe he's not the clear cut number one. But man, you look at the running back landscape with, what is Kamara doing? And Elliott? Who's the argument? Aaron Jones coming off the injury.

MATT HARMON: Right.

DALTON DEL DON: Dalvin Cook coming off the injury. I don't know. Derrick Henry, obviously a non PPR. But I don't know. I think McCaffrey will be right there in the mix for number one, even if he's playing 80% of the snaps instead of 99%.