Ed McCaffrey on first NFL-bound son: 'Max is faster than me'
Tom Pelissero, USA TODAY Sports
9 months ago
The oldest of longtime NFL receiver Ed McCaffrey’s four football-playing sons has one significant edge on his dad.
“Max is faster than me,” McCaffrey told USA TODAY Sports recently with a laugh. “I’m not afraid to admit it. He’s always been fast. Speed is something I always worked on really hard. He does have some God-given speed and I think that will serve him well.”
Charles LeClaire, USA TODAY Sports, USA TODAY Sports
Younger brother Christian McCaffrey rocketed to fame last fall, when he set an NCAA single-season record with 3,864 all-purpose yards as a sophomore at Stanford.
But it’s Max McCaffrey, 21, who will get the first crack at carrying the family name back into the NFL after rising over his four-year career as a receiver at Duke, catching 52 passes for 643 yards and five touchdowns a senior in 2015.
He showed off his athletic ability at Duke’s pro day last month, posting a 36½-inch vertical and a 10-2 broad jump and running the 40-yard dash in 4.36 seconds – a time that would’ve been second-fastest among receivers at February’s scouting combine, if only Max had been invited.
“I would’ve loved to be at the combine. I think I did deserve to be there and I think I could’ve done well,” said Max McCaffrey, who still has room to grow into his 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame. “But for my goal to play in the NFL, I know it just means you’ve got to work harder. I use that kind of as a motivational force to just keep pushing harder.”
Does being referred to Ed’s son and/or Christian’s brother get old?
“I don’t get upset about any of that,” Max McCaffrey said. “I’m more proud to be in relation and see what they accomplish for themselves."
Said Ed: “I know that a lot of kids might shy away from the comparison, but it doesn’t bother him at all. I guess there’s worse things that you could be called than the brother of an NFL player or the brother of the AP player of the year.
“It’s funny, because he’s Christian’s older brother. He always has been, he always will be, and he’s not intimidated at all by Christian. He has a lot of confidence in himself, and he should. He’s a good player.”
On track to graduate next month with a degree in psychology, Max McCaffrey says he takes route-running seriously and considers his ability to dissect a play while it’s happening, adapt and get open a strength. Wherever he ends up this week, Max said, he’s “looking to go and make an impact early” – which would take advantage of his head start on Christian, a running back, who’s eligible for the draft next year if he chooses to declare.
There still are two more McCaffreys on the way up: Dylan, 17, is a quarterback who has committed to the University of Michigan and Luke, 15, is backing up his brother at Valor Christian High School in Colorado. But only Max plays the position where his father caught 565 passes over a 13-year career and won three Super Bowls, including two with the Denver Broncos, whose championship teams Max recalls spending time around in the late-1990s.
And Ed McCaffrey never ran 4.36.
“That’s flying, man,” Ed said. “I certainly never ran anything close to that. But Christian’s pretty darn fast, too. You should see them when they compete. It’s crazy. They both go at it. They train hard. They are both really fast. They get their speed from their mother (Lisa, a former Stanford soccer player), not from me. But I’m glad they have it.”
Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero.
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