The 49ers planted their foot in the ground as serious NFC contenders last night when they acquired RB Christian McCaffrey from the Carolina Panthers in exchange for four draft picks.
The trade compensation suggests that multiple teams had made offers for the 26 year old offensive weapon, with teams like the Bills & Rams all reportedly interested.
The Terms
San Francisco Acquires:
RB Christian McCaffrey (26)
Carolina Acquires:
2023 2nd round pick
2023 3rd round pick
2023 4th round pick
2024 5th round pick
The Traded Contract
The Niners are set up for outstanding financial value with this contract through the remainder of 2022, thanks to a simple base salary restructure that was processed on McCaffrey’s contract by the Panthers this past March.
SF’s Cap/Cash Hits
2022: $690,000 (guaranteed)
2023: $12,000,000 ($1M guaranteed for injury)
2024: $12,000,000 (non-guaranteed)
2025: $12,200,000 (non-guaranteed)
49ers 2022 Salary Cap Table
The Dead Cap & Cash
The Panthers will take on significant dead cap hits each of this and next year per this trade. 2022: $8,095,750 ($7,910,000 cash)
2023: $18,352,250 ($0 cash)
Panthers 2022 Salary Cap Table
The Savings
In addition to the four draft picks acquired, Carolina frees up a little bit of cap space both this and next season, and a good amount of potential cash going forward as well.
2022: $690,000 cap/cash saved
2023: $1,198,500 cap, $12,000,000 cash saved
The Draft Picks
With four shiny new picks acquired from this deal, the Panthers now boast some of the best draft capital in the league.
Projected 2023 1st-4th Round Picks:
#1, #33, #51, #86, #97, #117
In Conclusion
The 49ers get a bonafide offensive star for a bounty of draft picks, and he barely moves the needle financially speaking this season. In fact, even with McCaffrey in tow, San Francisco is only allocating $3,368,545 to their active running back core in 2022, 30th in the NFL.
However, the 49ers have now essentially forfeited their 2023 draft, with the #148 selection in the 5th round currently slated to be their first pick (compensatory draft picks notwithstanding). It’s an all-in move from San Francisco, something we’ve seen work quite a bit across the sports world of late.
And if Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t “the guy” - maybe Christian McCaffrey can be.