Dylan McCaffrey: “The offense has a lot more energy”

Michigan backup quarterback Dylan McCaffrey, along with his peers, are starting to settle in nicely to the new scheme of offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.

“I’m really enjoying it, I think our offense is moving at a much faster pace, I think the offense has a lot more energy, I love it,” McCaffrey said after Michigan’s Spring Game. But what’s Gattis doing to help the quarterback room? “He really gets all of us going and playing harder than we have before, especially at the quarterback position.”

During the Spring Game, it was noticeable how many times McCaffrey and Joe Milton either scrambled or ran for positive yardage on an option play. And according to McCaffrey, the scheme is catered towards agile QB’s. “We have a group of athletic quarterbacks and I think this offense allows quarterbacks to be athletic so I think that’s gonna be good for us.”

The offense didn’t huddle up, and the quarterbacks played out of the shotgun. McCaffrey is a fan of the new found tempo. “I love it. If you can get set before they do, get the play in, a lot of times that bodes well for the offense. That’s a great thing.”

McCaffrey believes the team has grown more comfortable running up-tempo and that the quarterbacks have been competing at a level propelling them to improvement.“I think as a quarterback room, we’ve all been pushing each other,” McCaffrey said. “I think we’ve all seen a lot of gain from that and we’ve all improved a good amount.”

A stronger than he looks athlete, the slender McCaffrey said he has gained added weight and muscle this off-season, but hasn’t sacrificed his agility doing so.

As far as his leadership abilities, McCaffrey believes he has improved as a leader, and when asked if he’s treating the quarterback competition as a wide open one, Dylan gave a simple and appropriate response... “yes, you have to.”

Every quarterback needs to have the mentality of a starter, and no matter how the depth chart ends up shaking out in 2019, McCaffrey is already proving he’s a competitor, and that’s a great thing to have in a talented and athletic quarterback room.