Carolina’s late addition of C.J. Anderson in free agency had some people thinking the Panthers might not make Christian McCaffrey their new No. 1 running back to replace Jonathan Stewart.

Now just days away from the beginning of the 2018 season, it’s clear he’s the guy.

McCaffrey packed on several pounds of muscle this offseason and he’s poised to post some monster numbers. Coach Ron Rivera and his staff have talked about a potential 25-30 touches per game for No. 22.

To justify that kind of workload, McCaffrey will have to produce big numbers from week to week. The good news is that if the preseason is any indication, McCaffrey is indeed ready to break out and have a dominant second NFL season.

According to Pro Football Focus, McCaffrey averaged a ridiculous 6.24 yards after contact per rush in August.

In the 2017 preseason, running back Christian McCaffrey rushed the ball 17 times and managed just 29 yards after contact, at an average of just 1.71 yards after contact per attempt. This preseason, however, McCaffrey rushed the ball 21 times and racked up 131 yards after contact at an average 6.24 yards after contact per attempt. The difference of 4.53 yards is the biggest among running backs who logged at least five rushing attempts in each of the last two preseasons.

You can add all kinds of asterisks and commentary about the preseason you want. That’s an undeniably impressive number.

One of the (stupid) criticisms of McCaffrey’s game coming out of Stanford was that he wouldn’t be able to effectively run between the tackles as a pro. It was always nonsense, but if McCaffrey proved anything last month, it’s that he can be every bit a smashmouth runner as Stewart or DeAngelo Williams were before him, in addition to being a remarkable receiving threat.