The Panthers are in rebuilding mode, and a Christian McCaffrey trade may be among the first moves they’ll make as they look to get rid of expensive players and stockpile draft picks.
Toward that, the Panthers have put out word that they’re looking to trade McCaffrey. At almost the same time on Saturday afternoon, both ESPN and NFL Network published articles saying McCaffrey could be traded.
Both articles cited sources as saying it’s not that the Panthers want to trade McCaffrey, it’s just that they’ll listen if other teams offer them something for McCaffrey. This is what teams always say when they put out word that they’re looking to trade a player: They don’t want other teams to give them lowball trade offers, so they claim they’ll only make a trade if they get an offer to their liking.
But make no mistake, when articles like these come out, it’s because the team is hoping the right offer will come along. What it would take for the Panthers to trade McCaffrey is unclear, but the Panthers are hoping some team will offer up the right deal before the November 1 trade deadline.
Trading McCaffrey won’t be a problem from a salary cap perspective. McCaffrey’s salary this year is only $1.035 million, so every team in the league could trade for him without having to make any significant salary cap moves. Where it gets interesting is in 2023, when McCaffrey has a non-guaranteed salary of $11.8 million. That’s an awful lot to pay any running back, especially one who has been significantly limited by injuries in recent years, but if a team thinks McCaffrey can help this year, trading for him now and worrying about next year’s salary next year could make sense.
When McCaffrey signed a four-year, $64 million contract extension with the Panthers in 2020, there were hopes that he’d be a big-time player for them for years to come. It hasn’t worked out that way. And now may be the time for them to go their separate ways.