Even when the Jets weren’t opening their season in San Francisco on Monday evening, the comparability can be pure.
Christian McCaffrey is the bar for working backs within the NFL.
Breece Corridor, simply two seasons into his profession, has developed a profile that appears loads just like the youthful model of the 49ers celebrity.
That the 2 will probably be on opposing sidelines Monday, nicely, that simply makes it too straightforward.
“Actually to me, I haven’t actually accomplished something on this league but,” Corridor mentioned Tuesday. “The hype and all that stuff’s there, however for me, it’s simply having an ordinary for myself. Each time I step out on the sphere, I need to be one of the best participant on the market. I need each crew to know who No. 20 is.”
He gained’t get many higher alternatives than Week 1 in prime time towards final yr’s NFC champs and the participant who led the league in speeding yards.
Corridor mentioned he’s watched McCaffrey since center college.
A Nice Plains child — born in Omaha, highschool in Wichita, faculty at Iowa State — Corridor mentioned that regardless of household ties to the Niners, he by no means had a favourite NFL crew rising up, and recalled McCaffrey’s starring Rose Bowl efficiency towards Iowa as Stanford rolled over the Hawkeyes.
In an effort to assist get Quincy Williams prepared for the matchup, Corridor additionally has labored with the linebacker after practices, doing his finest impression of McCaffrey.
“The primary half, it’s extra like releases,” Williams mentioned. “So actually simply getting off the road — ‘What do you see whenever you get this transfer proper right here? What do you see whenever you get this one proper right here?’ So I’m already anticipating with my leverage, simply off the discharge, goes into the second part for us with the path place. [49ers QB Brock] Purdy does this factor the place it doesn’t matter the place he’s on the sphere, if he rolls out and stuff like that, he’s in search of the massive play on a regular basis.”
“[McCaffrey] has no wasted motion and when he’s working the ball or he’s working his routes, studying between zone and man, he at all times makes the precise learn, it looks like,” Corridor mentioned. “He just about does all the pieces proper, so simply seeing how he performs with minimal errors and nice consideration to element.”
Notably, McCaffrey’s finest season — the one one during which he reached 1,000 yards each speeding and receiving — got here in his third yr within the league, the purpose Corridor is coming into.
As a 22-year-old in his second yr, McCaffrey ran for 1,098 yards with 867 within the air.
Corridor, on the similar juncture, ran for 994 with 591 within the air — nicely behind, however with the caveats that the Jets offense ought to be a lot better this season with a wholesome Aaron Rodgers and that Corridor was coming off an ACL tear.
So what can this season appear to be?
Any fantasy soccer participant would contest the notion that Corridor is in want of a breakout — the purpose at which you could possibly draft him outdoors the primary spherical is lengthy gone — but when the Jets are going to succeed in the playoffs for the primary time in over a decade, he’ll be mirroring McCaffrey in additional methods than further work after observe.
“Clearly the crew, we’ve huge expectations for ourselves,” Corridor mentioned. “I at all times have a giant expectation for myself. For me personally, I need to be on the market and be wholesome once more and I do know if I may be wholesome and play, be a three-down again then all the pieces I need, I’m gonna have the ability to do that season. We’re fearful concerning the crew targets first and any particular person stuff will include that.”
