Unpopular opinion

[1of10Charnatives]

Teams that win Super Bowls in the modern era do not pay running backs a lot of money. 

As much as we all love McCaffrey, his contract represented poor allocation of scarce resources in a league where high performing teams do not pay running backs heavily.

Spare me the arguments about what a great receiver he is out of the backfield and how that changes the equation. The reality is with a solid qb and receiving corps, in an effective modern offense, you are not throwing dump offs to your running back in nearly the quantity McCaffrey has been receiving. In that respect his receiving numbers are actually a symptom of dysfunctional offense.

Every dollar put into a great RB, no matter how skilled a receiver, is a dollar that cannot be used to pay a playoff quality QB, or above average talent at OT, CB, pass rusher, or even safety. These positions matter to winning in the modern era far more than talent at RB, and in the case of everything but safety, are much harder to come by than talent at RB, so the need to acquire and retain talent at these positions is of greater concern. 

Given that unused cap dollars can now be rolled forward, trading CMC needs to be viewed primarily through the lense of the dollars it frees up to pay Burns, Chinn, and down the road Icky and Horn. These players will matter to any future championship aspirations. A RB and a non pass rushing LB (Shaq) do not, except by subtracting their unpalatable contracts from our cap.

The silver lining is that for the first time since Moses led his people out of Egypt, we appear to have solid talent on the OL and in the secondary. We need a QB desperately and we need another productive pass rusher, but don't worry so much about receiver, running back or linebacker, those can be had in FA.

[JawnyBlaze]

CMC makes just over half what the top WRs make. He’d be most teams best WR. His contract wasn’t bad just because his position is listed as RB. Name the last WR that had as many total yards as CMC’s last healthy year. And he was looking pretty healthy to me this year. 

[RenoCarolina]

1 minute ago, 1of10Charnatives said:

 

Spare me the arguments about what a great receiver he is out of the backfield and how that changes the equation.

I agree it was time for the trade and I liked our compensation.

But we got that compensation "because" he is a great receiver out of the backfield.  If we discount that then CMC would never have gotten his huge contract or have been such a franchise risk if another injury occurs.

[Panthers8969]

You better let the 9ers know. 0% chance they win anything now 

[Toker Smurf]

3 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

CMC makes just over half what the top WRs make. He’d be most teams best WR. His contract wasn’t bad just because his position is listed as RB. Name the last WR that had as many total yards as CMC’s last healthy year. And he was looking pretty healthy to me this year. 

But we’re not winning anything this year and probably not next year. Do you want to bank on him being healthy in 2024 and beyond?

[1of10Charnatives]

2 minutes ago, Panthers8969 said:

You better let the 9ers know. 0% chance they win anything now 

Note the compensation they gave up to acquire a player regarded as one of the tops at his position. From their perspective, the deal may make sense, they are in a different position than we are in. Even with a likely top pick in the draft and even if we acquire a top QB prospect, do you see this team playing deep into the playoffs in the next two years? 

If you do I'd like some of whatever you're smoking. If not, a RB with CMC's injury history is almost guaranteed not to be able to contribute to a degree commensurate with his cost on such a team. Far more likely would be dollars spent on him prevent us from acquiring or retaining the talent needed to assemble such a team.

[joemac]

10 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

CMC makes just over half what the top WRs make. He’d be most teams best WR. His contract wasn’t bad just because his position is listed as RB. Name the last WR that had as many total yards as CMC’s last healthy year. And he was looking pretty healthy to me this year. 

Thats all well and good, but his last healthy year was 2019, and its damn near 2023. 

[stan786]

10 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

CMC makes just over half what the top WRs make. He’d be most teams best WR. His contract wasn’t bad just because his position is listed as RB. Name the last WR that had as many total yards as CMC’s last healthy year. And he was looking pretty healthy to me this year. 

He does for San Fran now since the bonus stayed with us, he was gonna be have top end WR cap hits here if we kept him

[1of10Charnatives]

9 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

CMC makes just over half what the top WRs make. He’d be most teams best WR. His contract wasn’t bad just because his position is listed as RB. Name the last WR that had as many total yards as CMC’s last healthy year. And he was looking pretty healthy to me this year. 

Teams with top paid WR's tend not to win SB's, so I'm not in favor of paying them top money either. There is too much talent to go around at WR, and the difference between what you get with a top WR and a decent one you don't pay nearly as much is nowhere near the difference between top talent at the positions I mentioned. 

Bottom line, you can find people to catch the ball in the NFL, the trickier bit is finding the person to throw them the ball, and the pass protectors who can keep athletic freaks from knocking that guy down.

[Panthera onca]

Gotta have a franchise QB. Nothing else really matters until that happens.

[Camp Fodder]

11 minutes ago, Pakmeng said:

Hopefully we've learned our lesson with running backs.

I have to assume most of the people upset about this trade are just generally upset about the team. The trade makes sense in our situation.

It makes sense but there are two things that bother me. These picks are likely at the end of the rounds and second I don’t trust who we have making these picks. 

[JawnyBlaze]

9 minutes ago, joemac said:

Thats all well and good, but his last healthy year was 2019, and its damn near 2023. 

He had two different injuries two years. You’re making it sound like he was out for four years. It was two, and this year he was looking good when he actually touched the ball. Not his fault our coaching staff is incompetent. When he had a decent OC in Turner he was cranking out yards like no one.
 

Maybe he won’t last more than a couple more years and this will have been for the best in the long run, but right now it just sickens me how little we got for a generational talent. Again. And how badly we wasted a generational talent. Again. 

[1of10Charnatives]

4 minutes ago, Camp Fodder said:

It makes sense but there are two things that bother me. These picks are likely at the end of the rounds and second I don’t trust who we have making these picks. 

Cap savings is the primary thing you should be looking at with this trade, not just the picks. Cap dollars can be rolled forward, so any money not spent on a RB who won't be part of your competitive team in a few years is good, also if you subscribe to tanking, getting rid of your only offensive weapon that might cause you to screw up and win a game or two could put you out of contention for the QB prospect of your choice.

[1of10Charnatives]

4 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

He had two different injuries two years. You’re making it sound like he was out for four years. It was two, and this year he was looking good when he actually touched the ball. Not his fault our coaching staff is incompetent. When he had a decent OC in Turner he was cranking out yards like no one.
 

Maybe he won’t last more than a couple more years and this will have been for the best in the long run, but right now it just sickens me how little we got for a generational talent. Again. And how badly we wasted a generational talent. Again. 

A generational talent who can't stay on the field is not a generational talent who matters in the end. It's a rare RB indeed who winds up being worthy of a hefty non rookie deal.