Michigan Football: Before anointing Milton, don’t forget Dylan McCaffrey

Michigan football has an interesting battle looming at backup quarterback between Joe Milton and Dylan McCaffrey.

It has been an interesting career thus far for Michigan football quarterback Dylan McCaffrey.

A highly-touted recruit from the class of 2017, McCaffrey was among the elite quarterbacks from the likes of Tua Tagovailoa, Jake Fromm, and Sam Ehlinger. While all three quarterbacks have flourished thus far into their college careers, McCaffrey has yet to find his groove in college football.

What’s been the delay?

Following his freshman season, Michigan football had a dilemma at the position, bringing in Ole Miss transfer Shea Patterson to become the starter while McCaffrey continues to develop his game. While Patterson has been a solid solution for the Wolverines, McCaffrey has not been given the opportunity to fully showcase his skills as a complete signal-caller.

In 2018, McCaffrey showed flashes of his ceiling with his athleticism, rushing for 99 yards on 10 attempts. However, McCaffrey was restricted in regards to throwing the ball, tallying only 15 attempts, yet throwing for 126 yards and two touchdowns. McCaffrey did not have the chance of improving these statistics due to a season-ending injury, breaking his collarbone.

Now, most of his playing time was in games that were already won, it seemed as if McCaffrey was due for more of a bigger role this season, even with Patterson returning to finish his college career. Before the season started, Jim Harbaugh stressed that a two-quarterback system was in place and that we should expect to see more of McCaffrey during the 2019 season.

The two-quarterback experiment took a huge downfall once McCaffrey went down with a concussion in the road loss to Wisconsin, but even prior to the injury, the Colorado native has seen the field more often in crucial situations, although, it’s the same restrictions as the year before. McCaffrey has been used in RPO situations, with half the time, rushing the ball instead of airing the ball out. He has attempted only 11 passes, while rushing for the same amount.

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Due to the injury, sophomore Joe Milton had the pleasure of filling in for McCaffrey during the garbage time against Rutgers, throwing for 3-of-4 and a touchdown. Despite the lack of reps, Michigan fans have come to the conclusion that it should be Milton’s team after Patterson, not McCaffrey.

Hold the brakes.

Yes, injuries have played a factor in the development of McCaffrey, however, his flashes of brilliance have been more impressive than Milton’s thus far. The prime example is last season’s opener against Notre Dame.

McCaffrey was able to move the chains against one of the elite defenses of the 2018 season in the Fighting Irish, completing 4-of-6 passes in the second half against a very hostile crowd in South Bend, when Patterson was taken off due to injury. Even in the Wisconsin game, McCaffrey showed promise, despite being down by a large number of points.

While Milton has the impression of displaying a better arm (which may be true), McCaffrey has not been given the same freedom throwing the ball as he has had, and it shows.

Could it be due to the reason that Harbaugh and Josh Gattis don’t believe in Dylan’s arm?

In his senior season at Valor Christian, McCaffrey threw for 2796 yards and 31 touchdowns, while throwing a notable 66% completion rate. It’s clear that McCaffrey has the ability to throw the ball at a consistent rate, and should be given the opportunity to throw the ball downfield when the opportunity arises.

It doesn’t hurt to test it out.