Re: Heisman finalists announced on 6pm Eastern (5pm Central) on Sportscenter ESPN2
It's Henry, McCaffrey, and Watson. IMO these 3 are heads above the others, so I agree with only 3 invitations. If we set aside our bias the truth is this is as even a top 3 as we've had in a while. A very good argument could be made for any of these 3 winning the Heisman.
I get what you're saying and I don't entirely disagree, although Watson would be a little lower than the other two. McCaffrey just picked a bad year to "break" Barry Sanders' record.
The one thing that continuously bothers me about the hype surrounding McCaffrey is that a large % of his all-purpose yardage came from what he did in the return game. He had over 1,000 yards in kick returns. And while that's impressive, the only reason running backs don't get close to Barry Sanders' record is because teams don't like to risk injury to their workhorses. It's not that no one CAN break those records, it's that teams never put their running backs in a position to do it. RB's don't return kicks. It's a rarity.
McCaffrey 2015
319 carries, 1,847 yards 8 TD's. 41 receptions, 540 yards, 4 TD's.
Sanders 1988
344 carries, 2,628 yards, 37 TD's. 19 receptions, 106 yards, 0 TD's.
Sanders still had nearly 400 more yards from scrimmage on only 3 more touches. (363 to 360)
Yeah McCaffrey broke Sanders' all-purpose yardage record, but that's clearly not the entire story. The difference in touchdowns is staggering. Their two season don't come close to lining up.
