Panthers' Christian McCaffrey Reportedly Skipping 2020 Pro Bowl; RB Not Injured

The Carolina Panthers' first-team All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey will not be taking part in this year's Pro Bowl after all.   

The decision was revealed Thursday night by The Athletic's Jourdan Rodrigue, who noted McCaffrey is not injured but would rather use the extra downtime to stick to his recovery and training schedule ahead of spring workouts with new head coach Matt Rhule.

This is the first time McCaffrey has been named to the Pro Bowl, but given all the change surrounding the Panthers—not to mention his workload during the season—it's understandable the 23-year-old would want to make sure he's in peak form for his upcoming offseason training activities.

The Stanford product carried the ball 287 times this season (up from 219 in 2018) and was targeted 142 times in the passing game (up from 124 in 2018). That resulted in 2,392 yards from scrimmage and 19 total touchdowns. Even more impressive, McCaffrey saw the field for 1,056 offensive snaps—93.4 percent of Carolina's snap count—which was the top mark among all running backs last year, per Football Outsiders.

After a season like that by an MVP candidate, it's tough to argue with McCaffrey skipping the Pro Bowl.

Yet it also highlights one of the league's frustrations with the event. As much as the NFL tinkers with Pro Bowl week, it can't rely on its stars to show up. That's despite moving the game from Hawaii and adding new wrinkles with its skills challenge.

While the league did see an uptick in viewership for the Pro Bowl last year, it was only the first iteration of the game to produce an increase in audience over the previous year since 2011. 

As for the Panthers, they'll look to retool completely after firing longtime head coach Ron Rivera to bring in Rhule from Baylor. With a $70 million contract, Rhule will have plenty of eyes on him as he transitions to the NFL. 

Now he'll also have a healthy and rested superstar in McCaffrey ready to go.