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With Christian McCaffrey’s 369 all-purpose yards against UCLA, the Stanford running back made the breakthrough from a darkhorse Heisman candidate to arguably the leading contender west of the Mississippi.

PFF grades confirm this, with a 6.4 grade in Week 7, leading all running backs, and a top 10 grade amongst Power 5 running backs for the year – a grade that does not take into account McCaffrey’s impact on the return game.

Interestingly enough, while the Cardinal running back has burst onto the Heisman scene, he has not had the highest PFF grade in his family for a third of the season. That’s right, Duke wide receiver Max McCaffrey, who many don’t know is Christian’s brother, has outgraded the Cardinal during Week 1 (-0.6 vs. -1.0) and 4 (1.9 vs. 1.6) this season.

McCaffrey certainly deserves a lot of credit for his impact in the improved Cardinal offense, but at least for part of the season his brother has given him the stiff arm.

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