Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey won’t be back any time soon.
The Panthers placed McCaffrey on injured reserve today, according to Darin Gantt of Panthers.com.
That suggests that McCaffrey may have recently aggravated his injured hamstring, perhaps when he returned to practice on a limited basis on Wednesday. All indications up until today had been that McCaffrey was slowly but surely making progress in his recovery from the injury and would be back on the field sooner rather than later.
Now the soonest McCaffrey could play would be Week Nine against the Patriots. He suffered the injury in Week Three.
McCaffrey played only three games last season. Injuries have been a significant issue for him the last two years.
The Panthers also placed rookie guard Deonte Brown on injured reserve after a knee injury in practice on Friday, and they signed guard Michael Jordan from the practice squad to take Brown’s place.
The Panthers will also promote punter Ryan Winslow and running back Spencer Brown from the practice squad to the active roster for Sunday’s game.