Christian McCaffrey isn't built like a workhorse, but he has been used like one since college.
At Stanford, they gave 731 touches in 38 games -- almost 20 per game. And that was before players could get paid. Stanford used him with no conscience.
Now, as he enters his ninth season in the NFL, he's 29 and has had 2,013 touches on the Panthers and the 49ers counting the postseason. That's 2,744 touches since high school. Maybe it's time to lighten his workload.
"I don't think about that," McCaffrey said at minicamp this week. "My job is to put my body in the best position it can to go out there and be me. Everything else, there's a lot of noise. Sometimes, there's a lot of things going on. My job is just to go 100 percent every play and continue to get better. I just try to focus on that."
"Do you modify your mindset or training at all as you get older?" I asked.
"Definitely," McCaffrey admitted. "It's funny, I've had a lot of people tell me that as you get older, you have to do less. I think there's just a middle ground with that statement. For me, it's a constant evaluation of where your body's at and what you need. You put a lot of trust in other people -- trainers, treatment people, the guys in the facility. If you follow their plans and you like where it's going and you start to feel good, but you're just constantly evaluating where you're at and trusting the whole offseason process."
It sounds like McCaffrey knows only one way to play football -- all out, as hard as he can. He might have a tough time adjusting to life as a senior citizen in NFL terms.