The Carolina Panthers will be without running back Christian McCaffrey for the rest of their Week 3 matchup with the Houston Texans and must hope his absence won’t linger longer.
McCaffrey injured his hamstring early in the second quarter of Thursday night’s matchup with the Texans and was ruled out shortly after departing the field for Carolina’s medical tent.
Christian McCaffrey has been ruled OUT for the rest of #TNF with a hamstring injury, per FOX #KeepPounding pic.twitter.com/ScfHUjMUSO
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) September 24, 2021
McCaffrey spent 22 minutes in the Panthers’ tent before walking to the team’s locker room with trainers to get the injury further evaluated. The Panthers have running backs Chuba Hubbard and Royce Freeman available to play Thursday. Looking forward, they also have Spencer Brown and Rodney Smith on their practice squad.
#CARvsHOU CMC pull-up/hitch paired with immediately being ruled out is extremely concerning. I believe he will be suffering a severe Grade 1 or Grade 2 strain. I expect him to miss 3 or more weeks!
— Mario Pilato (@PFF_Mario) September 24, 2021
Fantasy Football Takeaways
Rookie Chuba Hubbard
Low-end RB2 for now, but Hubbard played in every situation this preseason (short-down-distance, long-down-distance and two-minute offense). Veteran Royce Freeman worked in on that last drive so I will report out on the roles when we have more info. Freeman should be rostered in deeper league formats (12+ teams).