49ers hope trade for McCaffrey boosts talented roster
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Despite a string of injuries, lackluster performances and a 3-3 start to the season, general manager John Lynch still views his San Francisco 49ers as a Super Bowl contender.
That belief gave Lynch the confidence to take a gamble. He traded four draft picks to Carolina for star running back Christian McCaffrey in hopes of providing a similar spark to the last time he made a big in-season trade.
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“You only do this when you have belief in your team as it’s constructed,” Lynch said Friday. “The previous time we made a big splash like this was Emmanuel Sanders back in ‘19 because we felt like we had the team capable of competing for the whole deal. … We understand we have a lot of work to do. We understand this isn’t a magic pill. It’s not going to fix all our ills as a team, one player. We all have to get better.”
The 49ers are counting on McCaffrey to do that after they traded their picks in the second, third and fourth rounds of the 2023 draft, as well as a fifth-rounder in 2024 to Carolina.
They paid a heavy price to get McCaffrey but also managed to keep him away from the division rival Rams, who were the other team in the mix.
“It’s definitely a bonus,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “I think everybody would love the opportunity to have a player like Christian. I think everyone looks into it, but it’s also nice to keep a good player away from the team that we have to compete with year in and year out.”
McCaffrey joins a talented group of playmakers in San Francisco with versatile receiver Deebo Samuel, star tight end George Kittle and receiver Brandon Aiyuk.
But the Niners were not as strong at running back with starter Elijah Mitchell out with a knee injury and ranked 20th in the league in scoring at 20.3 points per game.
McCaffrey could get his first shot with the 49ers when they host Kansas City. He passed his physical in time to get on the field for the end of Friday’s practice and will have a crash-course on the new offense in hopes he can play a limited role Sunday.
“I’ll leave that up to (the coaches), but it’s just my job to learn as much as humanly possible in the next two days and get ready to play a football game,” McCaffrey said.
The 26-year-old McCaffrey provides Shanahan with one of the best as both a runner and receiver, adding another element to San Francisco’s offense.
The Niners were tied with the sixth fewest passes to running backs with just 4.0 targets per game but now can feature on offense that has one of the most accomplished receiving backs in McCaffrey and a receiver who is a dynamic runner in Samuel.
“I don’t know if there’s anyone better at putting guys in positions to have success, in tailoring to what they’re good at,” McCaffrey said. “I’ve watched him do some unbelievable things with some great running backs and even the running backs in the room right now. … You just hear legends about how good of an offensive mind he is. So to be here is exciting.”
