Here's why Christian McCaffrey might be declining all private draft workout requests
Anyone hoping to work out Christian McCaffrey since his Stanford Pro Day is out of luck, because the running back and potential first-round pick has reportedly declined all requests.
That's according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who reported Sunday that McCaffrey has repeatedly told teams "no" when asked for private workouts.
And, as Florio, noted, no one is really freaking out.
The logic is pretty simple: every single time that McCaffrey engages in aggressive physical behavior (or any sort of exercise, really) between now and April 27, he is setting himself up for potentially damaging his long-term future.
Right now he's considered a virtually consensus first-round pick, and it's believed he could very well end up going in the top 10. There are a lot of people pegging McCaffrey to the Panthers at No. 8 overall, and the Eagles would make a lot of sense at No. 14 overall.
In fact, according to Tony Pauline of DraftAnalyst.com, the reason why McCaffrey isn't working out for teams is because he "received a draft guarantee from a team presently selecting in the teens" that "they will select him if he's still available."
Pauline doesn't indicate who that team might be, but it's totally reasonable to view the top 15 overall as McCaffrey's floor. This is a guy who has game-changing talent in multiple areas; he can run, catch and return. He's four-down player who could conceivably just become a dominant slot receiver that is occasionally situated in the backfield. Or a technical running back who catches a ton of passes.
Whatever the case, McCaffrey clearly believes he's not going to fall far in the draft. And as such, he's willing to gamble -- or not gamble as it were -- on not holding private workouts. As long as he doesn't fall in the draft, it's going to look like a smart decision, especially if teams aren't getting hot and bothered about his decision to stand on his pro day performance.