INDIANAPOLIS — It didn’t happen with Christian.
The Denver Broncos now have a second chance with Luke, the youngest of the McCaffrey clan.
“That’d be awesome. That’d be a dream come true,’’ Luke McCaffrey, a receiver from Rice, said to 9NEWS’ Scotty Gange following his NFL Combine press conference Friday. “I grew up kind of in that locker room with my dad playing and then when he was broadcasting. It was awesome to grow up at Mile High. I got to play a couple games there in high school luckily enough in the seasons we did well so that would be a dream come true.”
Throughout the 2010s, the talk around Broncos Country water coolers and the Denver sporting landscape was Luke was the best of the McCaffreys. There were four football playing sons of Ed and Lisa McCaffrey. Ed played for the Broncos from 1995-2003 and if he wasn’t the team’s best player during that time he wasn’t too far off and he was perhaps the most popular.
So in rating the McCaffreys, anyone who watched the all-purpose Christian McCaffrey perform first at Stanford, then for the Carolina Panthers and the past two years with San Francisco 49ers, who would find it hard to believe that anyone in his family was better.
But Luke has some athleticism Christian doesn’t have, namely an ability to play quarterback. (Although Christian is Walter Payton-like when it comes to the halfback pass). For much of his life Luke was a quarterback who occasionally played receiver. He led his dad’s coached Valor Christian Academy to an undefeated season and Class 5A state championship in 2018.
He then played mostly quarterback with some gadget packages for two years at Nebraska. He split time between quarterback and receiver at Rice University for a year before he became a full-time pass catcher these last two years.
A good one, too. The 6-foot-1 1/2, 202-pound McCaffrey – who has so many similar features as his dad including looks, a polite, but assured demeanor, and his voice manner – had 58 catches for 723 yards and six touchdowns as a junior in 2022 and 71 receptions for 992 yards and 13 touchdowns as a senior in 2023.
Knowing he ultimately is going to make it in the NFL as a receiver, like his dad, does Luke have any regrets about not giving up on his quarterback dream earlier?
“I get asked that question quite a bit and I don’t know if I could foresee a world where I didn’t follow the path I did,’’ McCaffrey said. “I think every coach I ever had from Little League to high school to our coaches at Nebraska or coaches at Rice, they always gave me the same piece of advice. And it was both a compliment that was something I’ll remember forever … which was whether you want to go down the path at quarterback or you want to open it up to something else, I think you’re going to succeed.
“It’s the approach where you go about your business and the way that you attack it and try and get better at everything, it’s what’s going to make you succeed and either way it’s going to take a lot of hard work. It’s going to be a long, tough and fun process but the way it played out for me I’m so thankful. I got to learn so much about myself. I got to meet so many great people. Got to learn a couple different systems. I think I just really grew as an individual and a football player more than I ever could.’’
Besides, having a quarterback mind at receiver – Luke said his dream is to become a play calling coach once his playing career is finished – has its advantages.
“When it comes to the quarterback-receiver relationship I think playing quarterback helps with the communication more than anything else, McCaffrey said. “This last year me and (Rice QB) J.T. Daniels got to meet every week and we can speak the same language. I can speak the same language as an offensive coordinator and with every single coach on the staff. That’s kind of what you’re required to do. I think that’s just value added and something that I’m blessed and have a lot of fun doing.”
His expectations for the draft coming up April 25-27?
“I’ve heard everything,’’ McCaffrey said. “I’ve heard every single round from the second round to undrafted. So I don’t like to speculate on the draft. I’m living in the moment right now. I’m having a lot of fun in this process. I’m going to learn from the great guys here, the great guys at the Senior Bowl, all the people I’m training with down in Florida.’’
Listening to the youngest McCaffrey and watching how he presents himself, he is proud of his family – “It’s shaped me in every possible way. They’re the biggest blessing I ever had that I never had the right to because I didn’t do anything to earn having those role models in my life,” – but he’s too relaxed, humble and confident to feel burdened or stressed or pressured to live up to the family name.
“There’s such a level of respect you have to have just to play the game of football,’’ McCaffrey said. “There’s such amazing history, such greatness that has come through. The level of respect is automatically going to have -- not pressure but the intensity and seriousness you have to have inside of you to approach this game and play it at a high level.
“I think I have that, I have the love for the game, the passion that comes from playing the game, that comes from the history of the game but when it comes to added pressure -- I have so much fun doing this that I don’t know if pressure will ever be the right word.”
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