Running back Christian McCaffrey of the Carolina Panthers rushes with the ball in the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, October 9, 2022. /CFP
The Carolina Panthers are willing to discuss a trade for their Pro Bowl running back Christian McCaffrey as part of a rebuild, ESPN reported on Saturday.
The Panthers have lost four of their last five games and fired head coach Matt Rhule last week. They've finished the last four seasons with a record below .500 and cycled through five different top quarterbacks from 2018 to 2022.
It's fair to say that the Panthers are chaotic and disappointing enough for a full rebuild.
However, the team understandably will charge a high fee for McCaffrey. Though he was held back by injuries in the previous two seasons, when McCaffery was healthy, he rushed for 1,098 and 1,387 yards in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, respectively. He was a second team All-Pro selection in 2018 and named to the Pro Bowl and All-Pro first team in 2019.
Running back Christian McCaffrey (#22) of the Carolina Panthers rushes with the ball in the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, October 9, 2022. /CFP
McCaffrey has rushed for 324 yards on 72 carries and caught 26 passes for 188 receiving yards this season. He is one of the league's only four players to record over 100 yards combined in rushing and receiving per game this season. The other three are wide receiver Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams, running back Nick Chubb of the Cleveland Browns and running back Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants.
McCaffrey signed a four-year, $64 million extension with the Panthers in 2020, with a $21.5-million signing bonus and $38 million guaranteed. He restructured his contract during this year's offseason and thus only has $1.035 million of base salary for this season.
Therefore, the team that trades for McCaffrey will face no salary cap pressure from his arrival. The Panthers will ask for as many draft picks as possible when negotiating a trade for him. The team currently has four picks for the 2023 NFL Draft in the first, second, fourth and fifth rounds.
ESPN revealed that the Panthers already rejected at least two trade offers for McCaffrey last week and have no intention to sell cheap. The NFL trade deadline this season is November 1.