Can You Smell That? Another McCaffrey Is Starting to Sizzle.

When I heard a friend utter the words “McCaffrey scored another touchdown. Maybe I should pick him up in fantasy,” last Sunday, I assumed he was talking about Christian, the all-world running back for the San Francisco 49ers.

“How does no one else already have him on the team?” I stupidly asked.

“Not Christian,” I was told. “His brother.”

But wasn’t Christian McCaffrey’s older brother, Max, out of the NFL after playing for a few teams in the late 2010s? And wasn’t the younger brother, Luke, a quarterback in college for a Big Ten team? And wasn’t he just so-so?

All of that is true, I learned, but I had also fallen out of touch with McCaffrey lore. Turns out that Luke McCaffrey eventually transitioned from quarterback to wide receiver after transferring from the University of Nebraska to Rice in 2021, and his freakishly athletic gifts quickly emerged as a pass catcher. Luke’s potential at a new-ish position was enough to impress the Washington Commanders, who took Luke as a wide receiver in the third round of the 2024 NFL draft.

And now the youngest McCaffrey is starting to cook.

After playing just three games in his rookie season, primarily on special teams, Luke has broken out as a wide receiver in the midst of injuries to the Commanders. Before Jayden Daniels went down with a knee injury, Luke was starting to build a connection with the 2024 Rookie of the Year quarterback. Even with backup Marcus Mariota throwing, the young McCaffrey has hauled in touchdowns in two straight games, including a 43-yard catch-and-run against the Las Vegas Raiders two weeks ago.

In a close loss to the Atlanta Falcons last week, Luke caught a short touchdown pass from Mariota and followed it up by contributing to a tackle on the following kickoff.

The mini-breakout may be tempered when number-one Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin returns, which is expected to happen as early as next week —or whenever Deebo Samuel decides he wants to return a kickoff. But proving yourself amid injuries to starters usually leads to more snaps, and Luke’s already receiving plenty of shine on special teams. In addition to the tackle on Sunday, he returned one kick for 58 yards against the Atlanta Falcons, setting up a field goal for the Commanders.

“I recognized [Luke] today in the special teams meeting. I thought, what a cool play. You catch the touchdown and then make a tackle on the next play on a kickoff and [are] involved in a tackle. I think that speaks to him as the competitor,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn told reporters on September 30, adding that he’s “certainly been pleased to see the growth in Luke.”

With two brothers who’ve played in the NFL — one of whom is still a star — and a third, Dylan, who played four years of college football, Luke’s success shouldn’t come as a huge shock. Their father, Ed, won two Super Bowls and earned an All-Pro nod as a receiver for the Denver Broncos, and their mom, Lisa, was a multi-sport athlete at Stanford University (where she met Ed…cute, right?). Oh, and Lisa’s father was David Sime, a silver medalist in the 100-meter dash in the 1960 Olympics.

So next time you’re reliving bad memories of being picked last in gym class or getting smoked at dodgeball, think of the poor children of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, who had to grow up playing games in the park against the McCaffrey family.