Why the Panthers traded Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers

Billy Heyen

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Why the Panthers traded Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers image

Christian McCaffrey gets a chance at some revenge on Monday Night Football.

CMC's San Francisco 49ers close out Week 12 with a clash against the Carolina Panthers, McCaffrey's former team.

It's still a bit crazy to think back to the midseason trade that sent McCaffrey to the Bay Area. Trades of superstars like CMC don't often happen in the middle of the season.

But on Oct. 20, 2022, that's exactly what happened.

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Christian McCaffrey trade details

The 49ers traded the Panthers four draft picks to get McCaffrey. The full breakdown:

  • 49ers get:  Christian McCaffrey
  • Panthers get:  2023 2nd-round pick, 2023 3rd-round pick, 2023 4th-round pick, 2024 5th-round pick

Why did the Panthers trade Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers?

The Panthers were looking to rebuild.

At the time of the trade, the Panthers were 1-5 and had just fired head coach Matt Rhule.

"The organization was looking for a path to turn things around," ESPN's David Newton wrote this week.

McCaffrey had also been limited by injuries in the two seasons preceding his trade away.

The move, in the end, was with the hopes of getting enough draft picks to get a quarterback.

The problem was that no team offered a first-round pick.

That's what led the Panthers to take the four-pick offer from the 49ers that included a second, a third, a fourth and a fifth.

CMC won Offensive Player of the Year in 2023 and helped the 49ers reach the Super Bowl.

The Panthers used the 49ers' second-round pick from the trade as part of the package to move up and get Bryce Young with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

In the end, the 49ers seem to have won the trade.

But there's also no telling if Carolina would've been better off keeping CMC but not getting a quarterback.

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Contributing Writer