No. 3: Christian McCaffrey will have a career game

Last year when the Panthers drafted running back Christian McCaffrey in the top 10, they expected similar production to what he did in college at Stanford — multiple games of having over 200 all-purpose yardage and effecting all three phases of the game.

Instead, they got neither a 1,000 yards in receiving or rushing yards. Not to mention, McCaffrey didn’t score over 10 touchdowns last year.

However, entering his sophomore season, McCaffrey is poised to have a breakout campaign. In Week 1, all of his skills will be on display. In this game versus Dallas, McCaffrey will set his career high in total yards, exceeding over 150 total yards.

Last season McCaffrey’s highest total yardage in a game was 136 yards.

Furthermore, McCaffrey will score at least once and have at least 20 or more touches on Sunday. Even this preseason, McCaffrey has shown us something he didn’t show in his rookie season: big play ability. In the Panthers’ second preseason game versus the Miami Dolphins, McCaffrey had a 71-yard touchdown run:

https://twitter.com/TheRenderNFL/status/1030603523396919297

When the Panthers released running back Jonathan Stewart this offseason, they cleared the backfield for McCaffrey to take over.

Now as the clear No. 1 running back, McCaffrey’s numbers should increase tremendously. Sunday against Dallas will be a McCaffrey coming out party, and Carolina will start off the 2018 season 1-0.