During his incredible NFL career, which spanned over a decade from 1991 to 2003, star wide receiver Ed McCaffrey was a part of three Super Bowl-winning teams while also being a significant part of John Elway’s Denver Broncos squads that won back-to-back titles in 1998 and 1999.

Along with having a successful NFL career, with stints with the Broncos, San Francisco 49ers, and New York Giants, McCaffrey has been a success off the field as an entrepreneur while also seeing his son, Christian McCaffrey, have a Hall-of-Fame-caliber career as one of the best running backs in league history.

Ed McCaffrey recently spoke with Essentially Sports to talk about his off-the-field ventures, including his McCaffrey protein bites, and several other topics, like Elway’s Netflix documentary, the current state of the Broncos, and their chances of going the distance, along with Christian McCaffrey’s impressive season with the 49ers during the 2025 campaign.

Can you tell us a little bit about your McCaffrey protein bites?

“We launched them right before the Super Bowl last year. We were in New Orleans, and we had a good time launching. They were a big hit. Everyone loved them. Our goal was to create the best-tasting, healthy snack that we could, and we believe we hit a home run with our protein bites. We have three flavors.

“We wanted to make sure they tasted great, right? So we have chocolate chip cookie dough, birthday cake, and fudge brownie. I think everybody likes those flavors, but they’re gluten-free, non-GMO, high in protein.

“Many people with food intolerances can eat them with no problem whatsoever. We tried to create our first three SKUs, or flavor profiles, for everybody. We didn’t want anybody with allergies to be left out. We’ll come up with a bunch more SKUs as time goes on, but for now, those are the three, and they’ve been really well-received. We’re excited about it.

“We’re a family full of athletes. My wife, Lisa, played soccer at Stanford, grew up playing all different kinds of sports her whole life. Obviously, I played football, but I was a football, basketball, baseball guy. My kids played every sport, including other sports besides the big three, like lacrosse and track, and you name it.

“So we’re always looking for fuel on the go. One of the reasons we have bites instead of just a bar is so you can control your portion size. You can seal the bag back up. If you only want to take three bites, have 90 calories just to get you through a podcast, or while you’re picking up the kids at carpool, or as a halftime snack, you can have three bites, seal it back up, save it for later. You’re not wrinkling that bar back up that you ate half of and letting all the lint and hair get on it when it’s in your console or your car.

“If you’re a big guy like me, I eat the whole bag as a snack and get about 20 grams of protein, but if you just want a smaller snack, you can get as many grams as you want. In one serving size, you’re getting close to five grams of protein. After years and years of experimenting with different flavor profiles, all of which we threw in the trash can because they were too chalky or medicine-y, and we just couldn’t get the higher protein snacks to taste good, we finally created these protein bites, which I think are delicious.”

They’re at Dick’s Sporting Goods, right? You can get them there. I think I saw that on your Instagram.

“Yeah. Dick’s Sporting Goods has proven to be a phenomenal partner of ours. They’re selling hotcakes, and we’re in 200 of their stores nationally. We’re going to increase that to 400 stores next year. Some of my friends in different cities across the country have been buying them. A lot of people who had never heard of them absolutely love them, but some buddies in some other cities say they’re not there yet, but they’re coming, so get ready. We’re really excited about our partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods.

“In Colorado, King Soopers has also put them on the shelves, put them in shippers, and so we’re expanding.”

Back in May, you said you expected the Broncos to add more offensive weapons, right? Were you surprised they took Jahdae Barron? 

“No. The Broncos are having a phenomenal season, man. They’re doing really great. Their defense is, in my opinion, the best in the league. They’re definitely best in terms of getting after the quarterback. I think they lead the league in sacks by at least seven now, or they had led by up to 12 at one point, but they can really pin their ears and get after the quarterback. They do a decent job of stopping the run. They won a few games without Patrick Surtain, who was last year’s Defensive Player of the Year. He came back last week, and Terry McLaurin, who’s a heck of a receiver for Washington, got him on a couple routes, but he rarely gets beat ever.

“I think Vance Joseph is lucky to have a guy like Patrick Surtain because he can do a lot of other things defensively and just leave him out there on an island and try to take away the other team’s best receiver or rotate to the best receiver and take away the next best receiver. Not many teams have a cornerback like that, and even fewer have the ability to bring in four or five different players who can all get after the quarterback.

“The key for the Broncos really is getting off to a fast start and getting a lead, but surprisingly, they haven’t been able to do that in most of their games, and they’ve just been phenomenal at coming back in the fourth quarter. It makes you scratch your head a little bit. It’s like, man, how come you can’t turn it on in the first quarter offensively and build a lead and let your defense go to town, but it doesn’t matter.

“They’re finding ways to win, and I think the best teams find ways to win. Offense, defense, you need a big play on special teams, you get it, and it just seems like the Broncos are that team this year. I would venture to say, I don’t even think, other than maybe one or two games, they really put all three phases together, which is a good thing because if you can start doing that, and maybe the offense picks it up in the first half and gives your defense a little bit of a break, then you’re really in good shape going into the playoffs.

“The Broncos are finding ways to win, and if they can hit their stride, full stride, going into the playoffs, I think that’s a good harbinger.”

Courtland Sutton is on the verge of passing you on the Broncos’ all-time receiving yards list (ended up passing McCaffrey in Week 15)

“I didn’t even know I was on the leaderboard. That’s good news. Courtland Sutton’s one of my favorite players. He’s been a leader for this team forever. I was so glad that he re-signed. I know that he potentially could have been a free agent before he signed his last contract, and I think the best teams try to keep their best players for as long as possible, so I was really happy that he re-signed.

“He’s having a great year. He’s a big receiver, right, so he’s a big target. That’s important when you’re trying to move the chains. That’s really important in the red zone, but he can run every route, and he’s going to be a big part of their success offensively. He’s got to be their number one target most of the time in the passing game, and so the Broncos’ offensive success will depend largely on him and Bo Nix getting him the ball.”

You played with some pretty iconic quarterbacks during your career: John Elway, Steve Young, Phil Simms. If you had to pick the No. 1 out of those guys, who would it be?

“I loved all my teammates, but come on, John Elway, man. Are you kidding me?

“I got to win back-to-back Super Bowls with John Elway, and we had great coaches. Mike Shanahan’s going to be in the Hall of Fame eventually, right? Mike Shanahan won back-to-back Super Bowls. Gary Kubiak was our offensive coordinator. He went on to win Super Bowl 50. We had such a great coaching staff, and then such great teammates, but John Elway, man, I mean, he’s the Mount Rushmore guy, right? I mean, he’s the guy with all of the talent. He could run. He had a rocket arm. He was a leader.

“He’s the type of guy, if heaven forbid you dropped a pass, he’d meet you halfway there and pat you on the back and say, ‘Okay, I’m coming right back to you, coming right back to you, right?’ He made everyone around him play better.

“The offensive line, man, they were held to a high standard because they knew they didn’t want to let him down. Don’t let anyone touch John, and in the run game, let’s make sure we’re getting after it. We had Terrell Davis in the backfield as well, but no, John just made the defense better, right, by what he did in practice and just having his presence on the field. He helped lure free agents to come play for the Broncos, who wanted to play for a team that had a chance to win a Super Bowl and play on a team that had a quarterback and a leader like John Elway, so we had so many great memories.

“My favorite play of my entire career was the last play of Super Bowl 32, and of course, Super Bowl 32 was the first Super Bowl championship that we ever won as the Denver Broncos, and the last play of the game. John took the snap and just took a knee. We were in the victory formation. I’m in the back of the victory formation, so I line up behind John just in case someone slaps that ball and it’s flying around.

“I gotta save it, fall on it, but I kept looking up at the clock and then looking at John, looking at the clock and looking at John. It seemed like an eternity, three, two, and I’m like, oh, it’s frozen in time for me, that moment. I think about it almost every day, just watching the pixelation of the numbers on the clock click from three to two to one to zero, and then John turns around, you know, he’s crying, he’s laughing, he’s excited.

“I wanted to pick him up over my head, but I had my knee drained twice that week, and I’m like, oh man, if I drop John Elway after the Super Bowl, that’s going to look pretty bad, so we just dapped up and celebrated, and all our teammates ran onto the field.

“He’s like a living legend, right? He was already legendary when we were playing and winning Super Bowls, and what he did for the Denver Broncos. It’s unbelievable, really.

“He’s the best player in Broncos history, one of the greatest players to ever play the game in any position, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He could do everything, and he was a real joy to play with.”

That kind of leads me to the next one. That documentary is coming out on Netflix. Were you a part of that, or did you make an appearance?

“I’ve been interviewed so many different times by people asking me questions about John, and I know I did a couple of interviews with the people who put together the documentary. I’m not the most exciting interviewer, as you’ve probably figured out already, so I don’t know if I made the cut or not, but I hope it does him justice. I hope it does him justice because it was really a storybook career. I mean, being one of the greatest athletes on the field, one of the greatest quarterbacks, having gotten to the Super Bowl and lost so many times, and then near the end of his career, finding a way to helicopter his way into the history books, literally, right? I mean, that play describes John Elway.

“Despite his unbelievable ability to pass the football, it was him running and getting hit by three guys and spinning around, just showing his sheer will and determination to win at all costs. That kind of represents his personality, which doesn’t really show up in the stat book, but we won for a reason. We had players like John on our team who were willing to do whatever it took to win, regardless of their own personal accolades or stats.”

What’s one thing about your career that you kind of consider a turning point, maybe, where you knew you made it? Your Welcome-to-the-NFL moment.

“There were a lot of welcome-to-the-NFL moments when I played with the Giants, but I think the turning point in my life was when I was playing for the 49ers in 1994. I got cut by the Giants. I’m thinking, maybe I should go to law school. Maybe I will go to business school. Maybe I can give this one more shot to try out for a team because I just got cut. My son, Max, was two months old.

“He’s coaching for the [Miami] Dolphins now, but he was two months old at the time. My wife, Lisa, I said, ‘Lisa, I got to go. I’m going to try out for a team, see if I can make a team. I don’t want this to be the end of my career.’ I went out and tried out for the 49ers. They had 14 receivers in camp.

“They put me in a room with six other dudes in bunk beds. I’m like, I was going into my fourth year in the league, and I’m thinking, this isn’t normal. They must not think much of me if they’re putting me in a room with a bunch of other players who probably weren’t going to make the team.

“I remember I went to George Seifert, our head coach. He was another great coach. He’s won two Super Bowls, by the way.

“I said, ‘Look, if you’re not serious about me being on the team, I get it, but there’s no way I can be in a room with five other guys in bunk beds. I’m trying to get sleep. I’m trying to take this seriously. I want to make the team. If I can get my own room, that’s great. If I have to room with someone, but this isn’t working.’

“I thought he was going to cut me. I’m like, oh, for sure he’s going to cut me. I’ll try out for another team.

“He said, ‘Okay. He moved me into a room. I had my own room for the longest time because our first-round draft pick, bar none, William Floyd, who was a great fullback for us, was holding out. I got my own room for a little while. I didn’t get cut. I was excited about that.

“At this camp, I was nursing the sprained ankle. I sprained my ankle playing basketball in the summer. It was killing me. They’re wrapping it up like a cast. I’m taking anti-inflammatories. They’re getting treatment every morning.

“They’re rubbing emu oil on there. I’m trying to learn all five positions at receiver because obviously, if you’re not Jerry Rice and John Taylor, who are starters, we’re only taking two more receivers. We only took four, which is unheard of.

“The other two guys who had been on the team the year before were in training camp. All four guys were returning from a really good team. They’re only taking four. It was an uphill battle to win a spot. My ankle’s killing me. It’s 122 degrees in Rockland. I already know that a minimum of two of the four spots are taken. I’m really vying for two spots with two guys who are on the team. I’m in incredible pain.

“Every day, I’m going against Deion Sanders. I have to beat Deion Sanders in practice to earn my spot. I’m backing up Jerry Rice. I’m going against Deion Sanders. I’m playing on a team with Steve Young, so many other All-Pros. This wasn’t going to be an easy team to make. I remember walking out to practice one day. I’m in pain. My ankle’s killing me. It’s hot. I’m starting to think, what am I doing here?

“I remember I just started laughing. I just started laughing on my way out to practice. This is crazy, me trying to make this team with my bad ankle against all these guys. I started laughing. As I did, I started standing up a little straighter. The pain started to go away a little bit. It was almost like I just surrendered. I don’t even care. If I win one route today against Deion, I’m going to tell Max about it for the rest of his life.

Forget tomorrow. Forget making the team. That’s not even important to me right now. Forget making the team. Forget having gotten cut a couple weeks ago. All I care about is today. All I care about is the next route. All I care about is what I can do next. All I want to do is be the best I can be. I want to do my best, whatever that is, and then let the chips fall where they may. That was such a turning point in my life because I learned how to live in the moment. I learned how to just focus on the next thing at hand. That changed my career. I became a better player that day. For the rest of my career, I was able to relax a little bit more. You can’t run at full speed when you’re tense, nervous, or thinking too much. You just have to relax and play the best that you can play. On that day, I started doing that. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I made the team, which was no easy task. We won a Super Bowl. That was the first Super Bowl championship I got to participate in. I played with incredible players. I played for great coaches. I barely got in the games, but Mike Shanahan noticed me and brought me to Denver. Then we won another two Super Bowls. Three Super Bowls in five years. I believe, for me personally, I was able to be part of those great teams because of that day when I just started laughing on my way out to practice, thinking it looked like all hope had been lost. I stopped worrying about the past and the future. I just concentrated on today.”

You changed perspective and mindset. It just made something click?

“It’s that simple. It’s not simple to get to that place, but it’s really that simple. Just decide that you’re going to do the best that you can do. I don’t care what it is in life that you’re doing. Just decide, I’m going to do the best that I can do.

“I don’t worry about what people say about me or what happened in the past. I’m not looking too far into the future. I’m going to be the best I can be today.

“In football, being your best is what’s best for your team. You want me to run down on kickoff? You want me to run down as a jammer on punt coverage? You want me to be on the hands team, set a wedge? I don’t care. You want me to be the receiver? You want me to block in the run game? Hopefully, you’ll throw me some routes. When you do, I’m going to try to make you glad that you threw the ball my way. If it doesn’t work out, it won’t be because I wasn’t prepared. It’s not going to be because of a lack of effort. I’m going to give you everything I have.

“The players are smart, man. That’s what always meant the most to me: being able to look my coaches and teammates in the eye and know that I gave them everything I had. They’ll know. Players know who works hard. Players know who gives great effort. Players know the guys that are prepared and the guys that aren’t. I wanted to be one of those guys that earned the respect of my coaches and teammates. That’s what meant the most to me.”

Are you hopeful one day that you’re going to join some of your teammates in the Hall of Fame? 

“I don’t even think about accolades at all. They’re always nice. I never turn them down if I get one. I don’t think of those things. My reward was being able to think every day about John Elwee taking a knee on the last play of Super Bowl XXXII. My rewards have been reaped. Anything else is gravy. I’m always thankful if I’m honored in any way. For me, just being able to have that experience over 13 years, playing with so many great coaches and great players, that was my dream come true.”

Who would you put on the Mount Rushmore or the Broncos’ greats?

“I’m friends with all these guys, man. I can’t narrow it down to four. The one guy who no one will dispute is John Elway. I already have five or six teammates in the Hall of Fame. I could keep naming more that aren’t in the Hall of Fame that hopefully should be, but I don’t want them calling me up and asking why I didn’t mention them. We all agree, I promise you, that John belongs there.”

Do you think the Broncos’ AFC West dominance can continue with Bo Nix and Sean Payton leading the way? Can they sustain that during the playoffs?

“Heck yeah, why not? Why not? I forgot who the guy was who wrote the business book that talked about putting people on the bus. You’ve got to get the right people on the bus, and then you’ve got to put them in the right seats, and then you’ve got to keep those people on the bus for as long as possible. That’s why I was happy they re-signed Courtland Sutton. They have a really good core of veteran players, combined with some young talent.

“Being able to re-sign your talented players over time as their contracts expire is going to be really important. They have a great coach in Sean Payton. The guy has won a Super Bowl before; he knows what it takes to put a team together to win a Super Bowl.

“Matter of fact, he said in training camp this year that he thought this was one of the few teams throughout his whole career that he felt comfortable saying in training camp had a chance to win a Super Bowl. I interviewed him in training camp, and he was very open about it. He’s like, ‘I’ve only been able to say this two or three times in my career.’ He’s coached a long time. This is one of the teams that has a chance.

“He has been proven right so far. They haven’t won a Super Bowl, but they’ve proven to everybody that this is a high-caliber team. If they can go on a run and capitalize on the momentum they have right now, they could make a run at it. He has a good eye for talent. He could tell that early on.

“Keeping this core group together, starting with Bo Nix, for as long as possible, is going to be important. Usually, runs go for three or four years. The [New England] Patriots were an anomaly. They had a quarterback they kept forever and were great on defense. The [Kansas City] Chiefs are an anomaly. Every 20 years or so, you might get a team that puts together a run that lasts longer than three or four years. I think this Broncos team keeps your studs on defense, signs as many guys on offense, adds to the mix. I think we could still add some offensive weapons, ensure some positions on defense to get even better next year. I’m seeing a lot of positive signs this year that the Broncos are here to stay. This isn’t a once-and-done type of season.”

I’ve got an interesting one here. ’98, Terrell Davis, or your son, Christian McCaffrey, ’19. Who do you think showed more skill and terrorized defenses more?

“You’re talking about two of the greatest football players of all time. Yeah. They’re both obviously excellent. TD’s my man. I go golfing with him now in the offseason. He’s a pretty darn good golfer as well.

“I’ll share with you a funny story. In Super Bowl 50, this was the Peyton Manning-led Super Bowl 50 team. Von Miller playing against the Carolina Panthers. Christian was still in college. He went to the game wearing a Terrell Davis Denver Broncos jersey, rooting for the Broncos. Now, as fate would have it, he was drafted by the Panthers the next year, which was kind of hilarious.

“But he was at that game in a Broncos jersey, because he grew up as a Broncos fan. He got to meet TD when he was just a little kid, when we were playing back in the early 2000s. That was pretty cool for him to get to watch his hero when he was younger. He probably watched all of his games, watched the Super Bowls a million different times, and probably emulated some of the things that he used to do. Christian is definitely a phenomenal receiver of the football. I don’t think I’m going on a limb saying that he’s the greatest receiver of the football, the running back position of all time.

“I don’t think it’s even debatable. It’s not just about the stats. It’s about being able to physically line up and run a receiver out as a running back. There’s nobody who’s ever been compared to him in that category. But he can run between the tackles, which he has done his whole life.

“If you go back to college and watch Stanford, they were running between the tackles more than any other team in the country, and he continues to do that in the NFL. But he can also line up and play receiver. So there aren’t too many receivers. There are a few running backs that are good at receiving the ball, usually running running back routes out of the backfield. There’s hardly anyone who’s ever been able to run a stutter comeback outside the numbers as an ex-receiver, or run intricate option or choice routes from the slot. And he can do that. So it’s a really unique skill. And I think he’s a pioneer in that way, in that other running backs with that skill set are now being sought after and rewarded and drafted to do some of the things that he’s been able to do.

“So he’s kind of paved the way in that regard, as being not just a running back or a running back that can catch out of the backfield, but a running back that can line up his receiver and run receiver routes. It creates great mismatch problems for the defense. It changes the way defenses defend your offense, and it should open up receivers down the field. And so that’s the advantage of it. And, you know, there’s young running backs like Bijan Robinson, who are really good, who can run the football in, who can catch the ball over the backfield. And they worked out together. They worked out together this summer. And by the way, he’s just a great dude, really enjoyed getting to know him. And he’s one of the real young talents in this league. But it kind of goes to show you where the league’s going. You know, you can have your first and second-down backs, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

“And you can have running back by committee. But when you have a running back that can play every down in the NFL, creating mismatches is one of the most important things you can do. And if you have a receiver that can run routes, it’s hard to defend that. You know, are you going to bracket them, which happens most of the time with Christian? Are you going to bring, cover them with a safety, or a DB, and waste one of your defensive backs on a running back instead of having a linebacker cover them? Or are you going to actually try to line up and have a linebacker cover them, in which case, good luck with that, right?

“And so that’s the advantage because you get them stuck into personnel groupings, and then you try to create a mismatch based on their personnel grouping. And not many teams have that guy that can both be stout in the run game in the box and also split out and cover a running back in man-to-man coverage. There aren’t too many people who can do it.”

Well, it’s ironic. That was my next question. You pretty much answered it, but Christian is five catches away from becoming the first running back in NFL history with 90-plus receptions in three career seasons (he now has 96 receptions heading into Week 18).

“See, I did not even know that. And I’m not good with the statistical part of it. I really don’t track the stats. I’m more about just watching the games, evaluating the tape, and trying to see how they’re creating mismatches. Or Christian and I talk all the time if there’s anything. He’s always asking if there’s anything that I see.

“And if I see something that I feel like needs to be said, I’ll say it. But this guy is a future Hall of Fame running back. So I won’t give him too many tips. I’m not going to. He has incredible vision, and he knows what he’s doing. So I won’t mess with that.

“Sometimes it’s important not to say anything if it doesn’t need to be said. So I’ll only speak up if there’s something obvious or something that I feel like he needs to hear that he doesn’t already know. But most of the time, to be honest, he already knows what he has to do. And he doesn’t make too many mistakes ever. But if he ever does, he’s the first one to correct himself.”

Christian had a tough season last year due to injuries, and now he’s having an incredible 2025 NFL season. What do you think he’s doing differently this year compared to what he’s done before? Have you noticed anything different?

“Not really. No, he’s doing the same things he’s always done. Kind of doing the same things he’s always done. And he evaluates himself kind of the way I do: Do you make the most out of what you have?

“So there are times where there’s a play to be made. And when that time arises, you’ve got to take that opportunity and make a play, and there are other times where you make the most of what you have, right?

“It’s not always up to you. Football is a team game. It takes everybody.”

So there’s a chance: Broncos vs. 49ers in the Super Bowl. Would you wear a half-jersey or something similar?

“I would not wear a half jersey. I would support my kids’ teams. It’s hard enough when they play each other, right?

“By the way, Kyle Shanahan is the head coach there. John Lynch is the GM. Half those guys are over there.

“I root for the Niners every single week. I want them to win a Super Bowl. I root for the Broncos every single week. Luckily, they don’t play each other. I root for the Miami Dolphins because my son coaches there, so I always want the Dolphins to win. I root for the [Washington] Commanders because my son Luke [McCaffrey] plays for them, but whichever one my kids is playing and whatever team they’re playing on, that’s the team I’m rooting for.”

On playing for the Broncos.

“Playing for the Denver Broncos was one of the greatest experiences of my life. The friendships I’ve created and the memories I share with the current team, front office and fans – those memories we’ll share forever.

“I talk about the Broncos when I go to the grocery store. I’m in there shopping, and people are mentioning the good old days. When you are a little kid, you think about catching a pass in an NFL game or playing pro ball. You are watching Mean Joe Greene give the kid his jersey. It’s just a dream until it happens.

“The thing I never thought about was how cool it was after you retire. Like how great everyone is to you once you are done, and you hang up the cleats, and you still get to share those incredible memories because we were part of something really special. We won the first couple of Super Bowls in the Denver Broncos’ history.

“The Broncos are my family, my kids are obviously my family, I’m rooting for them, but it makes every weekend so exciting with so many teams to cheer for.”