ASHBURN, Va. – Luke McCaffrey has some big cleats to fill as the son of Ed and brother of Christian. Also following brother Max, he is on the verge of being the fourth member of his family to play in the NFL.
McCaffrey knows all about what comes with having a well-known last name, and now he's trying to make his own name in professional football as a rookie wide receiver with the Washington Commanders.
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The converted quarterback has already formed a strong bond with Jayden Daniels and expects his upbringing on and off the field to help him adjust to the next level.
“I took everything from them,” McCaffrey said of learning from his father and brothers. “So much of life is the nurture aspect of that and becoming a product of your environment, and I was lucky enough to have such a beautiful environment growing up."
Ed won three Super Bowls total with San Francisco and Denver during a career lasting more than a decade spent catching passes for the New York Giants, the 49ers and then the Broncos. Christian is a two-time All-Pro running back who's on the cover of the latest Madden video game, the reigning AP Offensive Player of the Year and perennially among the top fantasy football picks in leagues around the world. Max appeared in six games in 2017 and ‘18 before moving into coaching, where he’s now an assistant with the Miami Dolphins.
McCaffrey, a third-round pick out of Rice who previously played at Nebraska, calls growing up in such a decorated family “the biggest blessing I never earned" given the resources he has had at his fingertips along the way.
College coach Mike Bloomgren said, partially as a result, McCaffrey “broke all the norms” moving from quarterback to receiver.
“Does it come from having a dad that played in the league 13 years and brother who he can lean on and say: ‘Hey, on this, what do you do? What is your mindset? How do you prepare for X?’ Sure,” Bloomgren said in a phone interview. “All those things help. But they’re going to help with this transition, too.”
Bloomgren, who was Stanford's offensive coordinator when Christian played there, said he first met Luke more than a decade ago and has gotten to know the family very well. A former New York Jets assistant who has been coaching Rice since 2018, he is not in the least bit worried about the McCaffrey name getting to Luke.
“Maybe the pressure that comes with being Ed’s son or Christian’s brother gets lost somewhere on Luke because he’s so hard on his friggin’ self,” Bloomgren said. “You have to remind him to go to the next play because he is such a perfectionist. Great ones can realize it and strive for perfection but let it be water off a duck’s back so that they can go to the next play and understand that that play that just happened good or bad can’t affect them in the next one. And I think Luke’s grown tremendously in that."
Bloomgren said that was a struggle for McCaffrey at QB, part of what precipitated the position switch prior to the 2022 season. McCaffrey has since made 129 catches for 1,715 yards and 19 touchdowns, with nearly 400 yards rushing mixed in as a dual threat like Christian, a running back who's just as reliable as a receiver out of the backfield.
McCaffrey believes his background and history helped the most in communicating with quarterbacks, be it in college or since being drafted and dealing with Daniels, Marcus Mariota, Jeff Driskel and Sam Hartman with Washington.
“He came up as a quarterback and he understands the time that’s needed that you have to invest in the playbook,” Bloomgren said. “That’s been really cool for him to have under his belt as a receiver and not just understand how to study and how to prepare in such a way but also to understand what the quarterback wants you to do as a receiver.”
Washington coach Dan Quinn thinks it has helped McCaffrey learn concepts and depth of routes quicker than expected, making him a more refined pro receiver than expected at this stage. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury appreciates what McCaffrey's path has done to shape the 23-year-old's mindset.
“He dealt with some adversity, and he kept fighting," Kingsbury said. "He doesn’t care if he plays quarterback, running back, whatever. He just wants to play, and that’s fun to be around. Really smart, same type-deal. I mean, he’s up there all hours of the day trying to learn and trying to get it down — and every drill we do, he is full speed.”
So many hours that when Daniels started doing early morning walkthroughs in the Commanders' practice bubble, he was joined by McCaffrey, who saw the work the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner was doing, asked about it and showed up daily to be a part of it.
That level of commitment comes as no surprise to Christian, who got emotional when he saw Luke's name scroll across the TV as the 100th pick in the draft earlier this year.
“I know how hard he’s worked,” Christian said. “I know the journey he’s been on. I know the ups and the downs that he’s gone through, and he’s done nothing but persevere through them. I’m fired up for him, and hopefully he has a lot of success.”
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AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow in Santa Clara, California, contributed.
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