Stanford Legend Christian McCaffrey Joins Elite Group in NFL History

Christian McCaffrey is a legend at Stanford, earning several accolades over the course of his three-year career before becoming a first-round draft pick in the NFL. But he is also an NFL legend in the making, and this past weekend, McCaffrey cemented that legendary status by becoming only the third player in league history to score 50 touchdowns for two different franchises. 

McCaffrey scored two touchdowns for the San Francisco 49ers in their Week 2 win over the Miami Dolphins, giving him 50 touchdowns with the 49ers and 50 touchdowns for his first NFL team, the Carolina Panthers.

McCaffrey joins only Marshall Faulk and Randy Moss as the three players to accomplish the feat. Faulk and Moss are both in the NFL Hall of Fame.

McCaffrey was drafted at No. 8 overall by the Panthers in the 2017 NFL draft, and quickly became a superstar in the league. Scoring seven touchdowns and recording over 1,000 yards from scrimmage as a rookie, he became a focal point in Carolina early on.

McCaffrey scored 13 touchdowns in his second season, but broke out in 2019 — a season where he recorded over 2,300 yards from scrimmage and scored 19 touchdowns. He missed most of the 2020 and 2021 seasons with injuries, and combined for eight touchdowns between those two seasons. 

In 2022, he scored three touchdowns for the Panthers in six games before being traded to San Francisco in October. The rest of that campaign saw McCaffrey score 10 touchdowns in 11 games for the 49ers, earning his second Pro Bowl selection.

McCaffrey enjoyed a dominant campaign in 2023, rushing for 1,459 yards and 14 touchdowns while recording over 560 yards receiving with seven touchdowns. Finishing with 2,023 all-purpose yards and 21 touchdowns, McCaffrey won the league Offensive Player of the Year award and was both a Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro selection.

The 2024 season was a tough one for him, limited to only four games because of injuries. He failed to score a single touchdown.

What made matters worse was that he only had 348 scrimmage yards, putting together his worst season as a pro. But McCaffrey bounced back nicely in 2025, recording 2,126 scrimmage yards and 17 touchdowns en route to being named the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year.

This season, McCaffrey is looking to stay healthy and lead the 49ers back to the promised land.

Playing at Stanford from 2014-2016, McCaffrey had a shared role in the backfield for the Cardinal as a freshman, but became the star of the team as a sophomore in 2015.

That season, McCaffrey had nearly 4,000 all-purpose yards and received numerous awards, including AP College Football Player of the Year, consensus All-American, Pac-12 Player of the Year, the Paul Hornung Award and was the runner-up to Derrick Henry for the Heisman Trophy.

McCaffrey is certainly one of the greatest Stanford players ever, but after accomplishing this rare feat in the NFL, it certainly brings up the question of where he stands among the greatest running backs in NFL history.