The selection of Christian McCaffrey at No. 8 overall in the 2017 NFL Draft wasn't an insane move by the Panthers. It certainly drew some skeptics (hello, Mr. Prisco) but by and large grabbing a versatile, explosive, four-down player there is a bonus for an offense that needs to improve around Cam Newton.

McCaffrey is a potential game changer if he's used in the right way, and it sounds like the Panthers have a pretty good handle on how to use him. At the very least McCaffrey does, telling the "Dan Patrick Show" how he hopes to be used in Mike Shula's offense. 

The short version: all over the place to create mismatches.

"They just said be me. I'm a running back, that's going to be my position there, but hopefully I get the chance to get split out a little bit and just create mismatches. It's such a dynamic offense and such an explosive offense and so many great players to be used, so for me it's do whatever they tell me to do. Run between the tackles, go outside, run some routes or special teams. Right now just honed in on running the offense and getting the plays down at running back and see where that takes me."

The Panthers were the best offense in football in 2015 and last year the entire unit regressed. Newton got worse in his mechanics (perhaps because of injury), the offensive line wasn't as good as the year before, Kelvin Benjamin didn't return to his rookie form and everything was a lot more vanilla. 

McCaffrey should make things much more versatile for Carolina. Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus pointed out some ways this can happen -- he really could be a make or break rookie for this unit in terms of immediately improving and becoming more explosive.

Line McCaffrey up in the backfield and motion him out to catch passes across the middle. Start him in the slot. Play him everywhere. If the Panthers don't run at least one wheel route for him a game they're wasting his potential. 

No, really. Run at least one a game.

If McCaffrey is running a bunch of third-and-long draws into the middle of the offensive line someone is a) going to get fired and b) it will be a total waste. The good news for Carolina is that McCaffrey should acclimate pretty quickly, because he believes that the Stanford playbook and the Panthers playbook are actually "very similar."

"That's one of the advantages of going to Stanford, it's a pro-style offense," McCaffrey told Patrick. "A lot of the terminology and verbiage is different, but the scheme is pretty similar. It's just a lot more -- the NFL playbook has more plays than a college playbook obviously. It's tough in some sense, but it's very similar."

If he can step in and be ready to roll from the start, there is a good chance McCaffrey ends up making a huge impact on the Panthers offense, catching passes and ripping off huge chunk plays. And if he gets the Panthers back to the playoffs this season, the selection at the top of the draft will look like a smart one.