After dealing wide receiver Robbie Anderson to the Cardinals earlier this week, the Panthers are still making deals. And this one is a blockbuster move: Carolina has sent star running backChristian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a 2023 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round pick in 2023 and a 5th round selection in 2024.
The move completely revamps the 49ers running game. Christian McCaffrey is widely known as one of the leagues best backs, but has had injury woes during the past couple of years. If he stays healthy, however, Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers will have an impeccable running back room featuring McCaffrey, (the soon returning) Elijah Mitchell, Jeff Wilson Jr. and still count on handoffs to receiver Deebo Samuels.
McCaffrey returns to the Bay Area, where he attended Stanford
Christian McCaffrey will return to a city he is very familiar with. At Stanford he was 2nd in voting for the Heisman Trophy in 2015, and 9th in 2016.
He still holds virtually all records possible at Stanford, with which he ran for 2,019 rushing yards in one season and averaged 144.2 rushing yards per game.
49ers’ RB Christian McCaffrey is set to fly to San Francisco on Friday, when he will meet his new teammates. It is not likely for him to get suited up this weekend in the Niners game against the Chiefs, but not impossible.
Lots of draft capital for an oft injured player
According to DraftSharks, Christian McCaffrey has an 84% chance of getting injured in 2022 and a 10.2% chance of getting injured per game.
He was injury-free for his first three seasons from 2017 to 2019, but 2020 brought on a slew of six injuries which had him miss over 20 games in total. Luckily, this season has been kind to him so far.