Where Will Christian McCaffrey Be Taken In 2022 Fantasy Drafts?

Mark LoMoglio. Shutterstock Images.

2021's unanimous #1 overall selection, Christian McCaffrey is now on IR and his season is over. He will finish the season having started 7 games, finishing only 5 due to injury. When he was on the field he was his usual spectacular self averaging 75 rushing yards to go along with 7 catches for 67 yards per game and totaling two touchdowns in those five fully healthy games. But he also left two games by halftime and will miss another nine full games this season. This coming off a season in which in which he only played three games due to injuries. I asked the question on this week's Fantasy Football Factory and Mintzy surprised me saying he's still a 1st rounder in 2022:

We do have precedent with this somewhat recently. Saquon Barkley was coming off two down years from his peak rookie season in which he amassed 2,028 total yards (with 91 catches!) and 15 TDs. His 2019 season he missed three games and wasn't as effective with 1,441 total yards (with 52 catches) and 8 TDs and had a very poor 2020 getting hurt in just the season's second game. However, Barkley still had an average draft position (ADP) of 9 and RB7 in 2021. That hasn't exactly worked out for Barkley's fantasy managers this year as he is currently RB41 in 0.5 PPR leagues and has missed four total games so far while being sub-par in most of the games he does play in.

I'd want to learn from this cautionary tale as a fantasy manager in 2022, so I'd be hard pressed to spend a 1st round OR 2nd round pick on a guy coming off 10/27 games played in the past two years, no matter how good he is. So unless he drops to Round 3, I'm deeming McCaffrey undraftable in the first two rounds in 2022. Check out this week's episode of Fantasy Football Factory for more and be sure to subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday morning: