McCaffrey Resets RB Market Again,

[32EBoozer]

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Running back Christian McCaffrey, the NFL's reigning Offensive Player of the Year, has reset the running back market for the second time in about four years, signing a two-year contract extension with the San Francisco 49ers.

The Niners announced the deal (but did not disclose financial terms) on Tuesday afternoon, not long after sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter that the deal -- which averages $19 million over the two added years -- was done.

In addition to the two extra years (2026 and 2027), the Niners added $8 million over what McCaffrey was scheduled to make in 2024 and 2025 while adding $24 million in guarantees, the sources told Schefter. WME negotiated the contract, which follows the 2020 pact he signed with the Carolina Panthers which also set a record for running back compensation.

OPOYs in 49ers history

Last season, Christian McCaffrey became the fifth player in 49ers history to win Offensive Player of the Year and the first since Jerry Rice in 1993.

SEASON	PLAYER
-- ESPN Stats & Information
2023	RB Christian McCaffrey
1993	WR Jerry Rice
1992	QB Steve Young
1989	QB Joe Montana
1988	RB Roger Craig
1987	WR Jerry Rice

After the 49ers completed the first day of their mandatory minicamp, a relaxed McCaffrey made it clear how much it means to him to continue raising the bar at his position.

"I think it's really important," McCaffrey said. "I think running backs have been undervalued for a long time now and hopefully this is a step in the right direction."

McCaffrey returned to the 49ers on Tuesday after skipping out on the voluntary portion of the offseason program. While coach Kyle Shanahan had previously declined to explain why McCaffrey was absent and pointed out that organized team activities were voluntary, there had been discussions between the sides about extending McCaffrey's deal as a means to reward him for his impact since he arrived at the trade deadline in 2022.

The extension will keep McCaffrey with the 49ers through the 2027 season. Before the reworked deal, McCaffrey had two years remaining on the lucrative extension he signed with the Panthers

• 5dNick Wagoner

But those two seasons had zero remaining guaranteed dollars in base salaries of $11.8 million in 2024 and $12 million in 2025. The extension guarantees all of that and comes with $8 million more for McCaffrey.

"Business is business, it's part of this game," McCaffrey said. "Both sides were mutually very respectful the whole time and just proud and happy that we got something done."

For the Niners, retaining McCaffrey was something of a no-brainer as he quickly established himself as the focal point of one of the league's most prolific offenses following the October 2022 trade that brought him to San Francisco. The 49ers acquired McCaffrey from the Panthers for 2023 second-, third- and fourth-round picks as well as a 2024 fifth-round selection. Since, McCaffrey has impressed teammates and coaches with his consistency, productivity and maniacal attention to detail.

 

[32EBoozer]

If Breece has another outstanding season, I could see him landing a $15 - $16 mil deal per season.

[Beerfish]

12 minutes ago, 32EBoozer said:

If Breece has another outstanding season, I could see him landing a $15 - $16 mil deal per season.

We better win damn soon.

Breece

Garret Wilson

Sauce Garder

J Johnson

Michael Carter

Reed

AVT

Quinnen

Massive Rodgers cap hit.

 

[Bronx]

44 minutes ago, 32EBoozer said:

If Breece has another outstanding season, I could see him landing a $15 - $16 mil deal per season.

We won't resign him at that price, maybe the kid we drafted will be his replacement. 

[Barry McCockinner]

49 minutes ago, Beerfish said:

We better win damn soon.

Breece

Garret Wilson

Sauce Garder

J Johnson

Michael Carter

Reed

AVT

Quinnen

Massive Rodgers cap hit.

 

4 blue chip players in one draft - we might have to flip one for future picks. I don't like paying RB's but Breece is a game breaker. Might have to be him though.

[32EBoozer]

7 minutes ago, Barry McCockinner said:

4 blue chip players in one draft - we might have to flip one for future picks. I don't like paying RB's but Breece is a game breaker. Might have to be him though.

I’m in on the Oilers as well. Suck-it Fla.

[LAD_Brooklyn]

1 hour ago, 32EBoozer said:

If Breece has another outstanding season, I could see him landing a $15 - $16 mil deal per season.

If he's earned it, then pay him. Breece has a chance to dethrone McCaffrey from the OPY award. The one guy whom I'm iffy about is Garrett Wilson. Love him and because he's home grown hopefully we can work things out. But WRs aren't that impactful to make more then LTs and DEs. The market is inflated for sure and I doubt it stops. 

[jetstream23]

2 hours ago, Beerfish said:

We better win damn soon.

Breece

Garret Wilson

Sauce Garder

J Johnson

Michael Carter

Reed

AVT

Quinnen

Massive Rodgers cap hit.

 

 

We have all these amazing players who will need huge amounts of money.... but we never win more than 7 games per year. lol

 

[BornJetsFan1983]

Anyone suggesting we get rid of breece hall is a lunatic. He is the rb you pay and whatever that number is, is a discount. 

For the love of God , pay and keep your good players. We can and will.

[Barry McCockinner]

3 minutes ago, BornJetsFan1983 said:

Anyone suggesting we get rid of breece hall is a lunatic. He is the rb you pay and whatever that number is, is a discount. 

For the love of God , pay and keep your good players. We can and will.

I don't want to get rid of him but we drafted 4 blue chip players in the same draft and may be forced to trade one. 

[slimjasi]

12 hours ago, jetstream23 said:

 

We have all these amazing players who will need huge amounts of money.... but we never win more than 7 games per year. lol

 

Because we’ve had bad/unreliable players at the most important position on the field (QB) and arguably the two most important positions (QB and tackle) 

[TuscanyTile2]

[Joe W. Namath]

Christian mccaffery gets a nice contract and jet fans run to the board to turn this into a negative signing breece hall thread.

The disease is at an all time high.  I have never seen so many infected.  Truly sad.

[AFJF]

4 hours ago, jetstream23 said:

 

We have all these amazing players who will need huge amounts of money.... but we never win more than 7 games per year. lol

 

It's almost as if the Rodgers injury had some kind of negative impact on the 2023 season, right?
 

[AFJF]

1 hour ago, Joe W. Namath said:

Christian mccaffery gets a nice contract and jet fans run to the board to turn this into a negative signing breece hall thread.

The disease is at an all time high.  I have never seen so many infected.  Truly sad.

Bruh, Izzy might not make the roster.  Gotta' grab them pitchforks now!!!

[32EBoozer]

5 hours ago, Joe W. Namath said:

Christian mccaffery gets a nice contract and jet fans run to the board to turn this into a negative signing breece hall thread.

The disease is at an all time high.  I have never seen so many infected.  Truly sad.

 

Listen… You can’t keep saying the “disease is at an all-time high” when we as fans have suffered through a decade + of terrible football and our organization over that time has been a corpse. The disease has been here, taken many lives, happy memories and caused financial hardship considering the product on the field. 
 

Just stop with your crap! Everyone has a right to their opinions… you included. You’re excited for the season… me too. Let’s not pretend everything has been wonderful instead of 10 years of a funeral procession. Stop saying realists have a disease!

[southparkcpa]

4 hours ago, AFJF said:

It's almost as if the Rodgers injury had some kind of negative impact on the 2023 season, right?
 

No but a 40 year old QB, protected by a weak O-line of patch up players may have.  Let's not pretend JD has put a solid well formulated  plan together. AR8 was available and he went in that direction.  It includes a 2 year "hope" that a 40 year old can play.  

[Joe W. Namath]

1 hour ago, southparkcpa said:

No but a 40 year old QB, protected by a weak O-line of patch up players may have.  Let's not pretend JD has put a solid well formulated  plan together. AR8 was available and he went in that direction.  It includes a 2 year "hope" that a 40 year old can play.  

Broncos and bucs had super bowl success doing this.  Lets not act like this route is a guaranteed failure.  It is actually been highly successful.

[slats]

12 hours ago, Beerfish said:

We better win damn soon.

Breece

Garret Wilson

Sauce Garder

J Johnson

Michael Carter

Reed

AVT

Quinnen

Massive Rodgers cap hit.

 

So I guess Joe Douglas sucks this time because he acquired a bunch of good players who’ll need to get paid… ? Another powerful argument. 

[Barry McCockinner]

44 minutes ago, slats said:

So I guess Joe Douglas sucks this time because he acquired a bunch of good players who’ll need to get paid… ? Another powerful argument. 

[Joe W. Namath]

8 minutes ago, Barry McCockinner said:

This disease is just getting slapped around at this point.  This is hysterical.

[Jetsplayer21]

10 hours ago, Barry McCockinner said:

I don't want to get rid of him but we drafted 4 blue chip players in the same draft and may be forced to trade one. 

Maybe, just maybe JD can finally find a qb in 1 , 1 draft. So he doesn’t have to pay 50 million for 1, because the smarter gm has drafted the much cheaper viable replacement.. Then we can afford 3 , 4 good players for that price.  

[batman10023]

looks like SF caved - they had him under control for 2 years at very low cost.   

[slimjasi]

9 hours ago, Joe W. Namath said:

Christian mccaffery gets a nice contract and jet fans run to the board to turn this into a negative signing breece hall thread.

The disease is at an all time high.  I have never seen so many infected.  Truly sad.

tell us about the disease that makes you think Izzy is RB2 right now LMAO

[BreeceHallofFame]

I love breece but he needs to put up a full entire all pro level season before even sniffing that type of deal 

[nycdan]

Lots of chatter around "you can find a RB in any round".

But when you look around the league, you see that many of the best RBs were 1st rounders.

CMC, Jacobs, Zeke (a few years ago but still), Barkley, Harris, Bijan, Gibbs.

Breece at the top of Round 2 was actually a damned good value.  Henry and Taylor were also a 2nd rounders.

There are a few studs who were taken late or not at all:  Kyren Williams, Mostert, Pacheco, Ekeler to name a few.  But the numbers strongly support taking one in round 1-2 in terms of hit rate.  

We found an absolute stud RB.  The odds of getting another in the draft outside of those first two rounds is low.  We could let him walk and take a chance with a high pick, or keep him and use that pick on another position of need.

If Breece does it again this year, he should and will get paid.  Contrary to a lot of opinions, I think top RBs are absolutely worth it.

 

[Sperm Edwards]

This year Purdy again makes like nothing again, and next year would be y1 of a new extension (if they don't fully tear up his 4th year outright, the only additional hit in '25 will be the prorated portion of a new signing bonus, which still will yield a low cap hit for the season). So with two more years of really low QB cap hits, so they may as well take advantage & ride CMC until his legs fall off. 

We'll see how this pans out. Great as he's been, that's still a lot to guarantee a 28 year-old RB who's already had two major injuries over his first 7 seasons of ~2000-touches (including the postseason). That's more wear & tear (literally, in CMC's case) than Lev Bell had when the Jets picked him up at age 27 after resting up a whole year (the Chiefs, Ravens, and Bucs also finding him just as worn out & useless after the Jets cut him). 

[Sperm Edwards]

However this last big payday turns out for the 49ers, I'll just note Carolina fans must feel like recent years' Jets fans.

1. Used a top 10 pick on a RB, he's as good or better than advertised & they gave him an early extension at $16MM/year after his first 3 seasons.
2. Then he gets injured week 3 in season 4
3. Then he gets injured week 7 in season 5
4. Then in season 6 they trade him for a 2023 2nd, 3rd, 4th and a 2024 5th for him -- he barely misses a snap since then and has been a young QB's best friend (or maybe best friend 1B after Trent Williams) as the offensive player of the year.
5. Then 5 months later they trade the only young star WR they've had since Steve Smith, to go all in on the next Zach Wilson QB whose play helps turn that traded future 1st rounder into a #1 overall pick.

After the dust's settled, what they netted is more or less:

• Bryce Young

for

• Christian McCaffrey in his prime +
• DJ Moore in his prime +
• The #1 overall pick in 2024
• (the '23 late 3rd/4th they got more or less of washes with the 2025 2nd they still owe Chicago, provided it isn't another top-3 pick slot of course).
• and some extra cap room, which they did not use on 26 year-old Brian Burns, trading him away as well, lol. Instead they spent $20MM/year on a guard who missed about half the prior season's snaps, though.

And this past year they also got to watch the QB taken after Young earn a deserved pro bowl nod, the almost-unanimous rookie of the year, and finish 8th in MVP voting for all players at all positions, putting up better numbers than Mahomes, Stafford, and dozens more in the process.

Yikes.

[BornJetsFan1983]

22 hours ago, Barry McCockinner said:

I don't want to get rid of him but we drafted 4 blue chip players in the same draft and may be forced to trade one. 

You can have more than 4 blue chip players on the team. And those 4 are key stones. You keep them

[BornJetsFan1983]

5 hours ago, Sperm Edwards said:

However this last big payday turns out for the 49ers, I'll just note Carolina fans must feel like recent years' Jets fans.

1. Used a top 10 pick on a RB, he's as good or better than advertised & they gave him an early extension at $16MM/year after his first 3 seasons.
2. Then he gets injured week 3 in season 4
3. Then he gets injured week 7 in season 5
4. Then in season 6 they trade him for a 2023 2nd, 3rd, 4th and a 2024 5th for him -- he barely misses a snap since then and has been a young QB's best friend (or maybe best friend 1B after Trent Williams) as the offensive player of the year.
5. Then 5 months later they trade the only young star WR they've had since Steve Smith, to go all in on the next Zach Wilson QB whose play helps turn that traded future 1st rounder into a #1 overall pick.

After the dust's settled, what they netted is more or less:

• Bryce Young

for

• Christian McCaffrey in his prime +
• DJ Moore in his prime +
• The #1 overall pick in 2024
• (the '23 late 3rd/4th they got more or less of washes with the 2025 2nd they still owe Chicago, provided it isn't another top-3 pick slot of course).
• and some extra cap room, which they did not use on 26 year-old Brian Burns, trading him away as well, lol. Instead they spent $20MM/year on a guard who missed about half the prior season's snaps, though.

And this past year they also got to watch the QB taken after Young earn a deserved pro bowl nod, the almost-unanimous rookie of the year, and finish 8th in MVP voting for all players at all positions, putting up better numbers than Mahomes, Stafford, and dozens more in the process.

Yikes.

Well when you say it like that , it sounds bad.

[Barry McCockinner]

7 minutes ago, BornJetsFan1983 said:

You can have more than 4 blue chip players on the team. And those 4 are key stones. You keep them

Are you sure that's legal?

[BornJetsFan1983]

2 hours ago, Barry McCockinner said:

Are you sure that's legal?

Haha the way out team has been run recently it seems like it isn't, but yes you are allowed to keep as many good players as you can afford

[Rich Thornburgh]

On 6/5/2024 at 7:21 AM, batman10023 said:

looks like SF caved - they had him under control for 2 years at very low cost.   

And they still need to pay Aiyuk

[Jetsfan80]

On 6/5/2024 at 3:59 PM, Sperm Edwards said:

However this last big payday turns out for the 49ers, I'll just note Carolina fans must feel like recent years' Jets fans.

1. Used a top 10 pick on a RB, he's as good or better than advertised & they gave him an early extension at $16MM/year after his first 3 seasons.
2. Then he gets injured week 3 in season 4
3. Then he gets injured week 7 in season 5
4. Then in season 6 they trade him for a 2023 2nd, 3rd, 4th and a 2024 5th for him -- he barely misses a snap since then and has been a young QB's best friend (or maybe best friend 1B after Trent Williams) as the offensive player of the year.
5. Then 5 months later they trade the only young star WR they've had since Steve Smith, to go all in on the next Zach Wilson QB whose play helps turn that traded future 1st rounder into a #1 overall pick.

After the dust's settled, what they netted is more or less:

• Bryce Young

for

• Christian McCaffrey in his prime +
• DJ Moore in his prime +
• The #1 overall pick in 2024
• (the '23 late 3rd/4th they got more or less of washes with the 2025 2nd they still owe Chicago, provided it isn't another top-3 pick slot of course).
• and some extra cap room, which they did not use on 26 year-old Brian Burns, trading him away as well, lol. Instead they spent $20MM/year on a guard who missed about half the prior season's snaps, though.

And this past year they also got to watch the QB taken after Young earn a deserved pro bowl nod, the almost-unanimous rookie of the year, and finish 8th in MVP voting for all players at all positions, putting up better numbers than Mahomes, Stafford, and dozens more in the process.

Yikes.

 

We've found the one owner in American pro sports that is somehow worse than Woody Johnson.

[Sperm Edwards]

48 minutes ago, Jetsfan80 said:

 

We've found the one owner in American pro sports that is somehow worse than Woody Johnson.

I forgot to include right in the middle of all this - in between #2 and #3 above, how they gave up a 2nd, a 4th, and a 6th,  and then guaranteed a 5th year at about $20MM, for Sam Darnold after seeing him suck for the Jets for three seasons.