John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan pulled off a stunning trade for star Christian McCaffrey, making the San Francisco 49ers a true Super Bowl or bust squad.
Every team wants to win a Super Bowl every single year. That's the goal. Whether you agree or disagree with the San Francisco 49ers trading for superstar running back Christian McCaffrey, it's clear the franchise is going all-in to win it all in 2022.
The Christian McCaffrey trade is the equivalent of John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan shoving all their chips into the pot. The 49ers
are sending second-, third- and fourth-round picks in 2023 and a fifth-round pick in 2024 (h/t ESPN's Adam Schefter, via David Newton) to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for McCaffrey.
It's a lot of draft capital to give up for a running back, no matter how good he is.
On principle, my philosophy is that NFL teams should never pay big for a running back. This is a position that is very tough on longevity, and it's a position that we've seen the 49ers find success filling with late-round and undrafted players.
But McCaffrey isn't just a running back. He is one of only three players in the history of the NFL to gain over 1,000 yards both rushing and receiving in a single season. The other two? Roger Craig and Marshall Faulk.
He's essentially another chess piece that Kyle Shanahan can line up all over the field on any given play. He can beat you on the ground and is clearly one of the best pure running backs in the league. Yet McCaffrey is also as dangerous as most top receivers in the passing game.
Whether he's running out of the backfield or lined out wide, he's a playmaker and a matchup nightmare.
It's easy to argue that the 49ers now have the most impressive group of skill-position players on offense in the league.
McCaffrey joins an offense in which he'll be lined up with Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle, and Kyle Juszczyk. Opposing defenses will not know what's coming next, no matter where these players line up. And once Elijah Mitchell returns from his knee injury, that will only be magnified more.
The McCaffrey trade, of course, does not come without risks. After starting his career with three straight healthy seasons, McCaffrey missed 22 games due to injuries from 2020-21. He's also been a bit dinged up already this season, though the 26-year-old has played in all six games for the Panthers.
Hopefully, getting back to a natural grass surface for his home games at Levi's Stadium will help McCaffrey stay healthy long term during his tenure with San Francisco. Yet it's hard not to wonder if he'll hold up. Running backs tend to wear down over time, and McCaffrey has been a heavy-load back since his days at Stanford.
There's also the matter of McCaffrey's contract. Though the 49ers owe him just under $700,000 this season, things get a bit trickier afterwards.
Based on the amount of draft capital the 49ers gave to Carolina in this trade, it seems clear they intend on keeping McCaffrey around for the long haul. However, it is extremely unlikely that McCaffrey will be interested in moving beyond this season with the deal he's currently saddled up with. The lack of guaranteed money almost ensures a contract renegotiation is in the near future.
With that in mind, it's going to be interesting to see how the front office handles this situation after the season.
The more immediate reaction, though, is that the 49ers are going all-in to win a Super Bowl this season. Sure, McCaffrey will be a boon to the offense next year and beyond, and I'm drooling at the potential of him and Trey Lance in the same backfield.
But for right now, he's going to be playing with Jimmy Garoppolo and Co. And suddenly, the 49ers have everything they need to control the game on the offensive side of the ball. The squad has a legitimate superstar running back, the likes of which we have not seen since Frank Gore.
McCaffrey is a guy who consistently dominates inside the tackles, running outside, and in the passing game. He's on the same level as Saquon Barkley in terms of open-field playmaking, burst through the line of scrimmage, and simply doing it all.
“You make it difficult (on defenses) when you have guys that can do a lot of things,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said Friday morning on KNBR. “And Christian is someone who can attack in every single way. He’s very similar to Deebo in that way. So that gives you another option. Gives defenses more things to worry about. And usually that makes everyone’s job easier.”
Shanahan, Garoppolo, and the 49ers offense has no more excuses. It's time to shine.
If the offense does live up to its potential, and if the 49ers can somehow get to the end of the season relatively healthy, then there is no reason to believe they aren't a Super Bowl favorite in the NFC.
Even before the Christian McCaffrey trade, I thought the 49ers would win 10 games and get into the postseason tourney. Now, I think they have a chance to make a run at a top-two seed in the conference and can go all the way.
With an offense as dangerous as their defense, the 49ers have an honest shot to win No. 6.
