The Carolina Panthers are just a couple weeks away from the start of their first official offseason under new head coach Matt Rhule.
Most of the talk in Carolina has surrounded the future of former NFL MVP Cam Newton and the Panthers’ quarterback situation.
However, recent suggestions behind the scenes are that the Panthers might ultimately decide to move on from record-breaking All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey.
This is not a drill.
“The other option would be to trade McCaffrey before his value depreciates — or a possible holdout occurs. A trade of a superstar like McCaffrey would demand high-value assets in return — likely multiple first or second-round picks, among other considerations,” Jourdan Rodrigue and Joseph Person of The Athletic noted on Monday.
This was part of a larger conversation that included potential extension negotiations between McCaffrey and the Panthers.
New Carolina owner David Tepper has noted that his organization is going to be more analytics based. If that is indeed the case, valuing McCaffrey at an all-time high financial level likely makes little sense.
Does this mean Carolina is going to trade the 23-year-old back? We’re not too sure.
What we do know is that extension negotiations will get tricky given that McCaffrey and his reps are not only looking to reset the running back market, but view him as much as a receiver as anything else.
The former top-10 pick put up a league-best 2,392 total yards while touching the ball north of 400 times last season. That included a resounding 116 catches.