49ers acquire running back Christian McCaffrey from Panthers

The Carolina Panthers are definitely in a state of rebuilding. On Thursday, the Panthers traded their star running back Christian McCaffrey of Castle Rock, Colorado to the San Francisco 49ers in a blockbuster trade according to Eric Edholm of nfl.com. In return the Panthers received the second, third, and fourth round pick in the 2023 National Football League Draft, and a fifth round draft pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

In six games this year, McCaffrey has 393 yards from 85 carries and two touchdowns. He also has 33 catches for 277 yards and another major score. So far in 2022, McCaffrey has had two games where he reached 100 yards in rushing. He had 15 rushes for 102 yards in week two, a 19-16 Panthers loss to the New York Giants. Then the following week, McCaffrey had 108 yards in a 22-14 Panthers win over the New Orleans Saints. The win over New Orleans was Carolina’s only win this season as they have a record of one win and five losses.

This past week, McCaffrey had a season-high 158 total yards in a 24-10 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. He had 69 rushing yards and 89 receiving yards.

McCaffrey’s best NFL season came in 2019, when he was selected to the Pro Bowl for the only time in his career. He led the NFL with 2392 yards from scrimmage. For his career, McCaffrey has 866 rushes for 3980 yards and 32 rushing touchdowns, along with 390 catches for 3292 yards and 18 receiving touchdowns.

Injuries have taken its toll on McCaffrey in recent years. He had a high ankle sprain and shoulder injury in 2020, and hamstring and ankle injury in 2021. As a result, McCaffrey only played 10 games in a span of two years.

With the loss of McCaffrey, the Panthers will seem to go in a time share at running back between Canadian Chuba Hubbard of Edmonton, Alberta and D’Onta Foreman of Texas City, Texas. McCaffrey meanwhile will be the 49ers number one running back, and it will be interesting to see what happens when Eli Mitchell returns from a sprained MCL.

The 49ers are in a first place tie in the NFC West with the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks. All teams are at three wins and three losses.

McCaffrey is the second player traded by the Carolina Panthers this week to the NFC West Division. On Monday, they traded wide receiver Robbie Anderson to the Arizona Cardinals.

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