Christian McCaffrey still has at least a week to go on IR.

Related players: Mike Davis

HC Matt Rhule says McCaffrey is “attacking rehab every day.” McCaffrey was on the sideline yesterday as well which is a good sign he's recovering from his ankle injury. Davis will at least fill in another week. One thing to note is Simmons said in another tweet it's still not known when McCaffrey can play as it was a 4-6 week injury.

The Panthers placed RB Christian McCaffrey on injured reserve Wednesday with a high ankle sprain.

Injured reserve is not as scary as it normally sounds with it only requiring the player to sit out three games this season, but this report puts a damper on McCaffrey's optimism from yesterday when he said he would beat his 4-6 week timetable. Mike Davis should take over the majority of the backfield work in Carolina, although the odds of him replicating McCaffrey's production are slim. McCaffrey will be eligible to return Week 6, but we will have to wait for additional reports to know whether he will be ready to play immediately when eligible.

Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey confirmed today that doctors tell him he’s going to miss four to six weeks with an ankle injury.

McCaffrey himself, however, is optimistic that he can miss less than that.

“They say four to six weeks,” McCaffrey said. “That’s a challenge to me. Hopefully I can get back a lot earlier. I’m going to attack this.”

If the Panthers put McCaffrey on injured reserve, he’d miss at least three weeks but could return after that thanks to the NFL’s special injured reserve rules for this season. It seems unlikely McCaffrey could be back any sooner than that, but he’s hoping that he can beat the 4-6 week projection the story said.

Mike Davis is first up.

Davis, 27, was signed by general manager Marty Hurney in November after being cut by Chicago. He had only two rushes for 2 yards last season as the former staff under coach Ron Rivera liked Reggie Bonnafon as the backup to Christian McCaffrey, who played almost 94% of the snaps.

New coach Rhule has been high on Davis, though, saying the 2015 fourth-round pick out of South Carolina had one of the best training camps of anybody. As recently as last week, after McCaffrey played 97% of the snaps in the opener, Rhule said he wanted to get Davis more playing time.

It looks like Davis will get more playing time as McCaffrey is expected to miss a couple of weeks. As the story said, Davis is capable. He has 10 career starts, including six for Seattle in 2017, when he rushed for 240 yards on 68 carries and caught 15 passes for 131 yards. If the team is in fact high on Davis, it could mean they are out on a free agent like Devonta Freeman, who is visiting the Giants today. Davis looks to be a must-add off the wire this week.

It's not the worst case scenario for the Carolina Panthers, but it is still very much a gut punch. On a Sunday that saw top talent around the league lost to injury -- several of them being major in nature -- running back Christian McCaffrey joined the list when he was knocked out of the Week 2 contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with an ankle injury. Those wondering if the All-Pro will be available for Week 3 need wonder no more, with unpleasant news arriving on Monday. McCaffrey is expected to miss multiple weeks with the injury, per Adam Schefter of ESPN, which makes him a candidate to land on injured reserve.

Related players: Mike Davis, Trenton Cannon

Davis and Cannon are expected to take over the workload for McCaffrey. Davis even stood out in the passing game after McCaffrey exited so he'll likely be a popular pickup this week on the wires. The story said another option for the Panthers could be free agent Devonta Freeman, but the Pro Bowler's price might suddenly be going up following an injury-ravaged NFL weekend. Freeman was said to be visiting the Giants after the loss of Saquon Barkley. Either way, Davis is a must-add.

Christian McCaffrey scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter Sunday to get his Panthers within a score, but it came at a cost.

McCaffrey suffered an ankle injury on the play and did not return to Carolina's 31-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Related players: Mike Davis

Panthers coach Matt Rhule was unable to provide an update after the game on the severity of McCaffrey's condition. If McCaffrey has to miss time, Davis looks like he'll be next up.

With five minutes left in the third quarter, Christian McCaffrey had only 10 touches and the Carolina offense was floundering, down 27-15.

It wasn’t until Brady went to McCaffrey repeatedly during a 17-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that the offense flourished. He had 11 touches on the drive.

But, with the Panthers needing a foot on fourth down to continue a potential go-ahead drive from the Las Vegas 46, the call on fourth and short went to fullback Alex Armah, who was stopped for no gain. McCaffrey finished with 23 carries and 96 yards rushing.

The Giants' offense is built around Saquon Barkley's skills, and putting up numbers like Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey did last season (more than 1,000 yards rushing and receiving) or making a run at Chris Johnson's single-season yards from scrimmage record (2,509) seems plausible.

"Certainly, he'll be a big part of what we're doing going forward," OC Jason Garrett said.

The story said Garrett's history shows he is more than willing to lean on a star running back, as nobody averaged more carries per game (20.9) over the past four seasons than Ezekiel Elliott did under Garrett with the Dallas Cowboys. Elliott even finished second among running backs with 431 routes run last season. The story went on to say the passing game is where Barkley could make significant gains. Watching him run routes at practice, the mismatches are obvious. His routes are crisper than ever. His explosiveness has returned.

“You can label Antonio Gibson as a running back, you can call him whatever you want,” Washington’s first-year OC Scott Turner said earlier this year. “But he played 80 percent of his snaps as a receiver in Memphis.”

So let’s delve into player comparisons. Many of the coaches on the Washington staff worked in Carolina last season. Would Christian McCaffrey be a comparable, at least stylistically?

“That’s fair,” Washington head coach Ron Rivera said excitedly on draft night. “He’s a little bit bigger than Christian, but he’s got a skill set like Christian.”

“He’s a Swiss army knife,” Washington VP of player personnel Kyle Smith said in April, shortly after Gibson’s selection in the third round. The team drafted Gibson as a running back, though he has spent time in the receiver room this summer, the story said, and played 80% of his snaps at WR in college. Gibson was never a high-volume player at Memphis and this year Washington may just take a simple approach with Gibson because of the pandemic and lack of time on the field. There is certainly a plan for Gibson but right now the team is mostly keeping that under wraps, the story said.

Mike Davis was a non-factor last season after Marty Hurney claimed him off waivers from the Bears. But he’s been way more involved this summer, and seems to be the front-runner to claim the backup role behind Christian McCaffrey.

Davis told The Athletic last week it was “refreshing” to get a clean slate with a new coaching staff, which has seen him emerge as a dual-threat, No. 2 back. “I think Mike Davis has had a great camp,” HC Matt Rhule said. “He’s running. He’s getting open.” This is worth noting for potential McCaffrey owners looking for his handcuff.