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The last time the best (and possibly most important) player on a championship team was a running back was in 1999 with Marshall Faulk. The last time a running back won Super Bowl MVP was in the 1997 season with Terrell Davis and the migraine game.
Those are the possibilities facing McCaffrey on Sunday if the 49ers win. There would be many implications of McCaffrey winning a ring, and the storylines may be more interesting than any other player involved in this game. Let’s break it down:
Breaking rushing title curse
McCaffrey led the NFL in rush yards (1,459) this season, the first player to win a rushing title and make the Super Bowl since Shaun Alexander in the 2005 season, 18 years ago! Winning it is a different matter. Only two players have ever won a rushing title and Super Bowl in the same season. Emmitt Smith (1992, 1993 and 1995) and Terrell Davis (1998). Coincidentally, the last player to win a rushing title and Super Bowl in the same season did it for a team with a Shanahan as the head coach (Mike) and a McCaffrey as a teammate (Ed).
Changing how RBs are valued
Jerry Jones said this about the position in 2019 during Ezekiel Elliott’s contract holdout. “The point is, you don’t have to have a rushing champion to win a Super Bowl … Emmitt (Smith) was the first one to do it. That’s one of the dilemmas at running back is that the league knows that you can win Super Bowls and not have Emmitt Smith back there or not have Zeke (Elliott) back there.”
McCaffrey winning a Super Bowl as the best running back in the league, and the highest-paid player at the position may not flip that theory on its head. But, it would mark the biggest win for the running back position in a long time.
This offseason star running backs met on zoom to discuss the financial state of the position in the midst of a wave of unhappy RBs (Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs and Tony Pollard were franchise tagged…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/super-bowl-2024-christian-mccaffrey-can-break-rushing-title-curse-and-help-change-way-rbs-are-valued/
Author : Douglas Clawson
Publish date : 2024-02-09 14:32:23
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