If this week has taught us anything, it’s that the NFL is never out of the spotlight for long. It’s been an eventful few days on the league transaction wire with Aaron Rodgers becoming the highest-paid player in the sport, eight-time Pro Bowler Bobby Wagner becoming a cap casualty and a lightning round of quarterback musical chairs with Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz finding new homes in Denver and Washington, respectively. With all that commotion, it’d be easy to miss this bombshell, courtesy of ESPN Panthers reporter David Newton.
It seems criminal that a player of McCaffrey’s elite caliber would fall through the cracks like this, but in a “what have you done for me lately?” league, the 25-year-old has suddenly become an afterthought. Running backs have a uniquely short shelf life relative to other positions (Todd Gurley went from Offensive Player of the Year to out of the league in three years) and there’s a very real possibility McCaffrey’s best years are already behind him. Of course, our perception of McCaffrey may also be clouded by recency bias, with injuries limiting the Panthers phenom to a combined 10 games over his past two seasons.
Whether his body is crumbling from overuse (he commanded an exhausting 403 touches during his breakout 2019) or he’s merely been a victim of bad luck, McCaffrey’s career trajectory is undoubtedly trending in the wrong direction. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, I know. The usual warning signs are all there, but if McCaffrey can return to his dominant 2019 form, he could be the missing piece for a contending team knocking on Lombardi’s door. At the very least, McCaffrey’s phenomenal track record makes him a worthy reclamation who, after a lost 2021, could probably be had on the cheap.
McCaffrey’s market has yet to take shape, though it should pick up soon enough with teams beginning to identify their needs ahead of what should be a busy free agency period with the draft following a month later. Provided that context, here are five teams who would be wise to give McCaffrey a look.
Arizona Cardinals
Kyler Murray isn’t feeling the love from Arizona right now, and while he’s obviously angling for a contract extension (his agent Erik Burkhardt admitted as much in a widely mocked statement released last month), as a show of goodwill, it wouldn’t hurt to bolster his supporting cast by trading for one of the best running backs in football. More importantly, McCaffrey would fill a major need with James Conner (18 combined rushing and receiving touchdowns last season) and Chase Edmonds both headed for free agency. Whether his ankle was holding him back or he had an agent in his ear begging him not to get hurt, Murray looked noticeably tentative in the Cardinals’ postseason loss to the Rams, managing just six yards on two rushing attempts. Mobile quarterbacks have often aged poorly with Cam Newton’s decline the most compelling evidence of that phenomenon. If the Cardinals want Murray to be their forever quarterback and not end up a cautionary tale like Newton, having a bell-cow to take some of the rushing work off his plate wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Buffalo Bills
Buffalo ranked sixth in the NFL in rushing last season (2,209 yards on the ground), though that total is skewed by Josh Allen’s 763 yards, the most by a quarterback in Bills franchise history. Devin Singletary caught fire late in the year, breaking out for eight touchdowns over his final six games. That was enough for Singletary to break free from his timeshare with Zack Moss, but keep in mind, this is someone who’s topped 100 yards rushing just twice in his career (51 combined regular and postseason games). Adding McCaffrey would, at least in theory, take some of the rushing burden off Allen, reducing his chance of injury while saving some bullets for the postseason. Coach Sean McDermott’s ties to Carolina, where he served as a defensive coordinator for six seasons under Ron Rivera, are worth noting here.
Kansas City Chiefs
Clyde Edwards-Helaire was always a reach where the Chiefs drafted him (32nd overall), and while he hasn’t quite been a bust, finishing last year in a committee with Jerick McKinnon isn’t an encouraging sign for his overall development. CEH’s durability, logging 12 absences in his first two seasons, should also give Kansas City pause. Obviously that same concern exists with McCaffrey, who has missed more games than he’s played the past two seasons. But McCaffrey, when healthy, is still a difference-maker and would adequately address one of KC’s few weaknesses. He’d also add a much-needed dimension to a Chiefs pass-catching corps that, for all its star power (Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce), is not particularly deep.
Miami Dolphins
A disciple of Kyle Shanahan (more on him in a minute), Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel has gained a reputation as one of the sport’s more creative run schemers, coaxing career-best seasons out of Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson, Matt Breida and Elijah Mitchell, among other success stories. Not only would McCaffrey prop up a running game that ranked among the league’s worst last season (third-fewest rushing yards, second-lowest yards per carry), but he’d be a perfect match for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and his calculated, “death by a thousand cuts” stylings. Having McCaffrey, one of three running backs in NFL history to top 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season, as a middle-of-the-field safety blanket could be the key to restoring Tua’s confidence after a frustrating 2021. Let’s also not forget McDaniel grew up a rabid Broncos fan, watching McCaffrey’s father, Ed, catch touchdowns from John Elway in the late 90s.
San Francisco 49ers
Life offers precious few certainties outside of death, taxes and Kyle Shanahan establishing the run. Only the Eagles, Titans and Saints dialed up the run on a higher percentage of their plays last season, and that was with Elijah Mitchell atop the Niners’ depth chart. This would be a homecoming of sorts for McCaffrey, who rose to prominence as a consensus All-American (he finished runner-up to Derrick Henry in the 2015 Heisman race) at Stanford. Shanahan has typically favored a committee approach to the ground game, though he’s also never had a weapon like McCaffrey, a yardage monster capable of taking it to the house on any given play. San Francisco drafted a pair of running backs last year but one barely saw the field (third-round bust Trey Sermon) while the other (Mitchell) punched above his weight class as a sixth-round rookie. Letting McCaffrey anchor the backfield would help smooth Trey Lance’s transition to QB1 while allowing jack-of-all-trades Deebo Samuel to focus on his pass-catching responsibilities. Would the Panthers, whose desperation for a franchise quarterback might be the league’s worst-kept secret, include McCaffrey as part of a deal for Jimmy Garoppolo (assuming the Colts don’t snatch him up first)? If it happens, tell ‘em you heard it here first.
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