The San Francisco 49ers have always been a run-first offense under head coach Kyle Shanahan. However, it got taken to a new level when they made a deal with the Carolina Panthers for Christian McCaffrey just ahead of the 2022 NFL trade deadline.
Coming off of a 2023 season that saw him win NFL Offensive Player of the Year, he’s proven to be a spark that set the blaze in the 49ers’ vaunted running attack.
With that in mind, it’s time to take a look back at the trade and figure out just how badly the 49ers won this deal with the Panthers.
Looking Back at the Christian McCaffrey Trade
McCaffrey was traded on Oct. 20, 2022, before the deadline.
What did the Panthers earn in exchange? They received:
2023 second-round pick, No. 61 overall (TE Brenton Strange)
2023 third-round pick, No. 93 overall (TE Darnell Washington)
2023 fourth-round pick, No. 132 overall (EDGE Nick Herbig)
2024 fifth-round pick, No. 157 overall (CB Chau Smith Wade)
The Panthers included the No. 61 pick in their trade-up with the Chicago Bears to secure the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, which they used on QB Bryce Young. Carolina also traded picks No. 93 and No. 132 in the third round that same draft to the Pittsburgh Steelers to move up to No. 80 for EDGE DJ Johnson.
This move also allowed the 49ers to send RB Jeff Wilson Jr. to the Miami Dolphins, earning a fifth-round pick back in the process.