The 49ers went all-in this season with their reported trade for Christian McCaffrey from the Panthers. San Francisco is trading four picks to Carolina for the dynamic running back that is sure to help its offense.
McCaffrey broke into the league in 2017 and had two amazing seasons in 2018 and 2019. He had a whopping 2,392 yards from scrimmage in 2019: 1,387 rushing and 1,005 receiving.
Since then, however, McCaffrey has only played in 16 games – including six this season. Injuries held him back in the last two years but he’s been healthy thus far, and that’s what the 49ers are counting on.
Brian Renick of the Audacy Original Podcast “49ers Webzone: No Huddle Podcast” broke down the McCaffrey trade from all angles, including what the running back will bring to San Francisco’s offense.
“Christian McCaffrey is coming to an offense with a head coach who can deploy him in a plethora of different ways,” Renick said (5:04 in player above). “Not only does Christian McCaffrey add a lot to this offense, I think Christian McCaffrey is going to unlock some other players in this offense, namely Deebo Samuel.
“I think McCaffrey’s ability to line up in the backfield or anywhere else in the formation to run crisp routes, to be an outlet for Jimmy Garoppolo, to be a weapon in the screen game, to be a weapon in the passing game, and, obviously, a weapon in the running game. The 49ers haven’t had a complete running back like this arguably since Kyle Shanahan became head coach in 2017.”
Renick acknowledged that the 49ers have had excellent running backs who have gained a lot of yards on the ground, but they haven’t had someone as dynamic as McCaffrey in years.
“The hope is that this unlocks the offense a little bit for Kyle Shanahan. We’ve talked on this podcast over the past few weeks that this offense has looked rather stale. It’s looked boring at times,” he said. “That immediately goes away with Christian McCaffrey entering the picture.”
The 49ers already had one matchup nightmare for defenses in Deebo Samuel. McCaffrey gives them a two-headed monster that not many have seen before.
“I get excited thinking about things like what’s it going to look like if you have Deebo and Christian McCaffrey lined up in the backfield at the same time. What are defenses going to do? They got to be in base defense, right? You got two running backs on the field. So now you’ve got Deebo and Christian McCaffrey who can, either one of them can take a handoff or can go out on the route from the backfield,” Renick said.
Defenses will be hard-pressed to find a linebacker that can cover either Samuel or McCaffrey, let alone a scheme that can account for both.
“All of a sudden Kyle Shanahan unlocks scheme versatility, which he wasn’t able to do with the injuries that he currently has to deal with.”
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