Running back Frank Gore came to Indianapolis with Super Bowl aspirations.
Three years later
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General manager Chris Ballard announced Wednesday the Colts do not intend to re-sign the 34-year-old, soon-to-be free agent, who is ranked No. 5 in career rushing.
"Frank is at a point where he knows we need to get younger," Ballard said during the first day of the NFL's annual scouting combine in Indianapolis. "And I wanted to give Frank a chance to finish his career where he wants to."
Not much followed the script after Gore opted to reunite with college teammate Andre Johnson with the Colts.
After quarterback Andrew Luck reached three consecutive Pro Bowls and made three straight playoff appearances, taking Indy one step deeper each season, Gore and others thought the Colts were on the verge of a breakout.
Instead, Luck hurt his throwing shoulder three weeks into the 2015 season and everything has gone south.
He has missed 26 of 48 games over the past three seasons, each of which ended with Indy missing the postseason. General manager Ryan Grigson, who signed Gore, was fired following the 2016 season and coach Chuck Pagano was fired in December.
Now, with Luck apparently on the road back to Indy, Gore is on his way out.
Ballard said Luck is expected to return to team headquarters in early April to continue rehabbing.
Getting Luck back in town would be a welcome change for the Colts, who monitored Luck's recovery for the nearly six weeks he spent in Europe and the eight weeks he has spent in California since the end of the season.
"Is it going to help having Andrew back in the building? Absolutely
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He and just about everyone else, though, will miss Gore's leadership and optimism.
Despite playing behind a struggling, ineffective offensive line each season in Indy, he never complained. He simply kept working, talking positive and plugging ahead.
The results were impressive.
After falling 33 yards short of his ninth 1,000-yard season in 2015, he rebounded with 1,025 yards at age 33 in 2016 鈥?making him the oldest 1,000-yard rusher since 35-year-old John Riggins in 1982. Then in December, the ageless Gore had a career-high 36 carries for 130 yards in an overtime loss in a Buffalo blizzard.
He even made passing some of the league's best runners look routine.
Ballard said Gore actually broke his thumb during that Buffalo game and doctors told him they could repair it by inserting a pin. While Gore never hinted publicly he was hurt, it was a different story behind closed doors.
"Frank said 'I'm a football player
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Four days later, Gore was back on the field against Denver. Three weeks later, Gore played in his 48th and final game with the Colts 鈥?a 24-carry, 100-yard performance that left him just 76 yards short of passing Curtis Martin for No. 4.
The only other players ahead of Gore are Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and Barry Sanders.
His nine 1,000-yard seasons are fifth behind Smith (11), Payton, Sanders and Martin (10), and he holds the league record with 12 consecutive seasons with 1,200 yards from scrimmage.
But he was always about more than numbers.
"He's a legend in my mind," new coach Frank Reich said. "He set the standard for on what backs did in (pass) protection."
And even though, he still wants a ring
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"I know I still can play, and I know I want to help a team," he said in late December. "I don't want to just be part of a team, I want to help a team, and I don't want anyone to say I rode the bench to get a ring."
Christian McCaffrey will have an even bigger role in the Panthers' offense this season.
McCaffrey, the team's first-round draft pick in 2017, carried the ball 117 times for 435 yards and established a franchise rookie record with 80 receptions. He finished the season with seven touchdowns.
While McCaffrey led the Panthers in receptions, he'll be counted on to carry the ball more after the team parted ways with its all-time leading rusher Jonathan Stewart. Panthers two-time NFL Coach of the Year Ron Rivera believes McCaffrey is up to the task, saying he can be a running back who carries the ball 200 times this season.
McCaffrey's durability has been questioned at times because his body build is more akin to a scat back than a power back.
He averaged just 3.7 yards per carry in 2017.
"Yeah, why not?" Rivera said of the prospect of a 200-carry season. "Everybody forgets that when he was (at Stanford) he carried the ball between the tackles more than anybody and touched the ball more than anybody. I don't see why not."
McCaffrey is all for it.
"Obviously anybody on the team wants the ball as much as possible," McCaffrey said. "That is football. You should want to compete. But we are here to win football games, so whatever that means and whatever that takes we're going to do."
McCaffrey, the son of three-time Super Bowl champion wide receiver Ed McCaffrey
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He feels "a lot more comfortable" in his second year with the Panthers, even though he's learning a new offensive scheme. But he wouldn't discuss what will be different about his workload this year or in what different ways he will be used under Turner for competitive reasons.
"However they want to use me, that is where I will be," McCaffrey said. "I think we have a lot of great talent and a lot of different weapons."
He won't be carrying the entire load in the backfield, of course.
The Panthers added depth at running back signing 2017 1,000-yard rusher C.J. Anderson, who played in Denver and helped the Broncos beat Carolina in the Super Bowl in 2015. Carolina is also expecting some added help from Cameron Artis-Payne and Kenjon Barner.
And don't forget, it was quarterback Cam Newton who led the team with 754 yards rushing and six touchdowns last season.
The 21-year-old McCaffrey enters the season with a new perspective after a "traumatic experience" earlier this summer.
McCaffrey, his brothers and some friends were in Colorado when they saw an elderly man fall off a cliff while hiking with his 13-year-old grandson. McCaffrey called 911 and one of his friends administered chest compressions.
McCaffrey said paramedics arrived at the scene in about 11 minutes. The 72-year-old Dan Smoker Sr. survived the fall and McCaffrey has developed a friendship with him and his family. He even plans to invite the Smokers to a Panthers home game this season.
"When you see something like that, you have a better appreciation for life and take every moment in," McCaffrey said. "We had a decompression moment after that. You look at life and realize it can be gone in any split second."
.
2018-08-25, 09:32 be gone in any split second." 
