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www.msn.com] The Christian McCaffrey trade shows just how desperate Kyle Shanahan's 49ers are
John Trupin - 2h ago
The San Francisco 49ers are right to be feeling frantic. In a division projected by many to have three playoff teams, the Niners have scuffled out of the gate, reeling from the injuries to Trey Lance, Trent Williams, Elijah Mitchell and approximately half of their vaunted defense. While Williams and some of the D are on the mend, the blockbuster trade for star running back Christian McCaffrey is a flare gun into the Santa Clara sky signaling that John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan were feeling the record-level heat.
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That’s a dangerous place to run a team from.
The trade hearkens back to an earlier time in football history, when star running backs were the jewels of every offensive coordinator’s dreams, and teams would blow up their futures to get Herschel Walker or Ricky Williams or Eric Dickerson.
Now, the Niners have made a throwback deal. The haul for McCaffrey is not quite in that stratosphere, with Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer attempting to save face for failing to secure a first-round pick in dealing their star after leaking that his price was two first-rounders. Even so, it's a huge cost in the modern NFL, which views running backs as fungible. Most teams understand that it's hard to rely on one staying healthy, and that it's questionable whether the running back is even the one largely responsible for running production.
McCaffrey has been a spectacular player when healthy, and the former Stanford star is unequivocally an upgrade over Jeff Wilson Jr., Tevin Coleman and the rest. Shanahan bristled at questions about McCaffrey's health Friday, claiming McCaffrey was the healthiest player he'd ever seen coming out of college. McCaffrey has been on the IR three times since the start of the 2020 season, though. It's fair to worry if the 26-year-old can post weekly as he did in his first three professional seasons.
Even if he is healthy, the question then turns to if it matters. With waves of injuries to a defense that has propped up a tepid Jimmy G-led offense, the Niners’ gift of middling starts from the Rams and Cardinals is at risk of slipping through their fingertips like an overthrown bubble screen. The Week 4 win over the Rams briefly flashed the formula for a deep postseason run: defensive dominance and just enough big plays from the offense. Since then, the injuries to the defense have placed immense pressure on an offense that has lacked dynamism.
The losses of Lance and Mitchell are obvious impediments, but the inconsistent availability of both tackles in Williams and Mike McGlinchey has put Garoppolo under constant pressure. Pro Football Focus saw Jimmy G as the NFL's most-impacted by pressure in 2021, transforming him from a passer capable of stretching the defense into a limited, mistake-prone disaster. McCaffrey's reputation as a pass blocker is strong, and he has long been among the league leaders in receiving from the backfield, so it's easy enough to see how San Francisco's sense of urgency led them to this move.
There are no more easy stretches on San Francisco's schedule, and the team's second showdown with the Rams is just around the corner in Week 8. Shanahan and Lynch clearly still view the season is a golden opportunity for a Super Bowl run, despite the injuries they’ve suffered. They have made an aggressive move to bring in the biggest name on the market, in an area of serious need. San Francisco’s rushing DVOA, per Football Outsiders, is 26th in the NFL. That's a travesty born of many factors and it’s difficult to know that the person carrying the ball will make a dramatic difference.
Will McCaffrey be able to make significantly more of an off-tackle run when Jaylon Moore and Spencer Burford are being driven backwards off the line? Perhaps. Could McCaffrey provide a more dynamic safety blanket and pass blocking option for Garoppolo to open up offensively? Certainly. But will a single running back in the year 2022 be able to plug the dam as Shanahan and Lynch run out of fingers for the leaks? That’s a lot to ask, even if McCaffrey returns to his prime form. The fact that he's being asked at all shows how badly cornered these Niners are.
