Panthers first-round pick Christian McCaffrey has yet to really take the field in Carolina, but Luke Kuechly is already signing up other linebackers to cover him during practice.
"He's going to be a nightmare for us," Kuechly told the Charlotte Observer. "It'll be a good challenge for us. We'll put Thomas [Davis] and Shaq [Thompson] on him and see what they can do."
McCaffrey, of course, is training away from Carolina because Stanford is still in session until early June.
In a lot of ways, it has been a blessing for the casual football observer that McCaffrey and the Panthers will not unite until mandatory mini camp later this month. During his only appearance in rookie mini camp, his blazing speed was an obvious point of focus. The team was neither in pads nor helmets.
While McCaffrey's time at Stanford more than proved he is more than just an excellent 40-yard dash, spring workouts are populated by reporters gushing over qualities in players that we rarely see translated directly onto the football field.
McCaffrey's real advantage will be his incredible receiving skills, football knowledge and an almost unconscious comfort weaving through a logjam of defenders with pads on. The real payoff will be how spread out Carolina will be able to make their opponents in Week 1.
The McCaffrey hype is well earned and will end up significant once training camp starts. Kuechly isn't already dreading those one-on-one drills for no reason.
