Former Panthers Coach Was Brutally Honest with Christian McCaffrey in 2019

Former Carolina Panthers RBs coach Jake Peetz admits to being brutally honest about a weakness Christian McCaffrey had in his game.

Former Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey and ex-running backs coach Jake Peetz. | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Back in 2019, former Carolina Panthers superstar running back Christian McCaffrey wanted to be challenged and his running backs coach at the time, Jake Peetz, was willing to deliver.

Peetz told the story on the NFL Spotlight with Ari Meirov podcast about McCaffrey's willingness to be coached and challenged in order to improve and Peetz responded by giving him a brutally honest assessment about one area of his game.

Peetz told Meirov that he informed McCaffrey that the running back was "one of the worst running backs in the league in pass protection."

"It's not like you're not good at it, you're one of the worst," Peetz recalls telling McCaffrey.

Peetz revealed that McCaffrey "didn't appreciate" his coach's take on his pass protection skills, but McCaffrey was willing to learn regardless and accepted the challenge.

Peetz hilariously admitted that he knew "nothing" about pass protection, so he had to seek out advice from other coaches, including from Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy.

“The thing I told Christian [McCaffrey] is, ‘I think you’re one of the worst RBs in the league in pass protection.’”

“Now, what do I know about RB pass protection? NOTHING.”#Seahawks pass game coordinator Jake Peetz was McCaffrey’s RBs coach in Carolina during his historic… https://t.co/RxJKo8kspW pic.twitter.com/y40tirPvox

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) June 24, 2026

Did Peetz's approach work?

Well, McCaffrey ended up scoring a 75.5 Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade that season, which amounted to the second-best mark of his career. Only his 2024 grade (77.2) was better. That grade was also nearly 13 points higher than his 2018 mark.

However, McCaffrey didn't exactly have sustained success in pass pro because his grade plummeted to 56.8 or worse from 2020 through 2023, including a putrid 24.6 in 2023.

As for Peetz, that would be his lone year as a running backs coach. He went on to take over the Panthers' quarterbacks coach job in 2020 and has now been with the Seattle Seahawks for two seasons.

Peetz won a ring with the Seahawks last season during his second campaign with the team as its pass-game coordinator and he has since had quarterbacks coach added to his job title.