Carolina Panthers mailbag: Who won the blockbuster Christian McCaffrey trade with 49ers?

The Panthers are hoping for a major turnaround as they come out of the bye week with an 0-6 record.

Naturally, Panthers fans are concerned about their favorite football team. So, The Observer mailbag is back to answer some of the Carolina faithful’s questions.

Here are some standout questions from social media this week:

Re-evaluating Christian McCaffrey trade

Chuck asks: Seriously, who won the Christian McCaffrey trade in your opinion?

Last October, the Panthers traded Pro Bowl running back Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers for second-, third- and fourth-round picks in 2023 and a fifth-round pick in 2024. Since then, the 49ers have thrived with McCaffrey scoring a touchdown in 16 consecutive games (including the playoffs) as he’s become of the centerpiece of San Francisco’s vaunted offense.

For the 49ers, this trade has turned out to be an unequivocal slam-dunk win. For the Panthers, the deal isn’t done processing yet, but the immediate results look questionable. Trading a star player for draft picks is always a gamble with goodwill and long-term growth.

McCaffrey was revered by fans in Carolina, despite the fact that the club had just one winning season with him on the roster. McCaffrey missed 13 games due to injury in 2021, and while he was unquestionably the straw that stirred the drink of the offense during the first seven games of the 2022 season, the Panthers played better down the stretch of last year with D’Onta Foreman in the backfield.

The NFL has been pretty transparent about its lack of respect for the running back position over the past few years. It took a war of words during the offseason for former rushing leader Jonathan Taylor to sign a three-year, $42 million contract extension with the Indianapolis Colts during the first month of the regular season. Before that pact, Panthers running back Miles Sanders was given the most lucrative long-term deal of the calendar year (four years, $25.4 million). So, for the Panthers to receive the package they did for McCaffrey, it was actually an impressive haul. I gave the trade a “B” at the time of the agreement.

But while the initial trade package was inspiring, draft picks are ultimately worth what they are used for.

The Panthers used the second-round pick as part of the blockbuster trade up the board to nab the No. 1 overall pick from the Chicago Bears. Trading the 49ers’ top Day 2 pick allowed the Panthers to hang onto No. 39, which they used on wide receiver Jonathan Mingo. So, for the sake of the evaluation of the trade, let’s count Mingo as part of the return. Mingo has 15 catches for 133 yards through the first five games of an up-and-down rookie season.

The Panthers then used the 49ers’ third- and fourth-round picks to trade up in the third round and select pass rusher DJ Johnson — a decision that I’ve heavily criticized. The project pass rusher, who turned 25 last week, was a healthy scratch for the first three weeks of his rookie season as he struggled to find a role as a developmental player. He has since joined the defense and special teams as a part-time contributor.

So, Mingo — who has struggled as a force-fed Day 1 starter — and Johnson are the return so far for McCaffrey. The team still also has the 2024 fifth-round pick from the 49ers to spend. In the early days of immediate returns, the 49ers look like a trade partner that ran away with the deal. But with McCaffrey’s dead money ($18.35 million) coming off their books in 2024 and two Day 2 picks still developing, along with rookie quarterback Bryce Young , there’s still a legitimate glimmer of hope for the Panthers’ side of the swap.

It’s also worth noting that the 49ers organization, even before McCaffrey arrived, had better talent at basically every level than the Panthers, so the running back was dropped into an ideal situation. The Panthers were a struggling team that was limited by how much it needed to force feed McCaffrey with little talent around him. Ultimately, the Panthers decided to get out of his market-leading running back deal and use future compensation to spread out the talent on the depth chart.

So far, the gamble has seemingly backfired (at least from an optics standpoint), which has been par for the course over the past 12 months. It’s easy to pile on an 0-6 squad, and rightfully so, as McCaffrey looks like an MVP candidate in the perfect offense for him. Meanwhile, the Panthers are down in the dumps.

Best approach at NFL trade deadline

Ed asks: In your opinion, what should be the Panthers strategy at the trade deadline? Which players could be moved?

The best strategy for the Panthers, at 0-6, is to sell.

The Panthers have six draft picks this upcoming offseason and no first-round pick. For a struggling team with limited youth on it’s long-term depth chart, it’s paramount that the Panthers get an infusion of young talent in the offseason to balance out a potential spending spree in free agency.

The Panthers have a ton of cap space next offseason. And while signing a bunch of veterans sounds swell on paper, the results of this offseason show that good teams need a balance of highly paid veterans and inspiring young players on their roster. Sanders, tight end Hayden Hurst and wideout DJ Chark haven’t really lived up to their billing this season, and the Panthers should try to be more selective in filling out their roster.

The Panthers should be looking to get value for their expiring contracts. Carolina has a good amount of veteran players on expiring deals, and swapping out those soon-to-depart contributors for draft picks is a logical strategy to get more youth on the team.

They could also use the trade deadline to get out of some long-term deals that aren’t ideal. Hurst, Sanders and cornerback Donte Jackson come to mind in that category. Of that group, Jackson is the likeliest to be dealt.

The team can also swap out some talent that was held over from the previous regime. Wideout Terrace Marshall was given permission to seek a trade, and dealing the receiver for a Day 3 pick would make sense.

If the Panthers want to get a package of premium picks, pass rusher Brian Burns — however unlikely — would be the lone golden ticket for major compensation.

New play-caller, new expectations

MJK asks: What do you want to see from offensive coordinator Thomas Brown as a play caller this week?

Reid asks: If you had to pick one offensive skill player that’s disappointed the first half of the season that will play better with Thomas Brown calling plays, who would it be?

I’m not expecting Brown, who has been here all year, to reinvent the wheel with the offense. His personnel groupings and philosophical attack will probably look very similar to head coach Frank Reich’s play-calling. However, I think the flow of the play calls will be what separates the two coaches.

Brown has a background with the run game, so I would expect to see a more balanced distribution between the ground and air calls. I also think Sean McVay’s influence might be a bit more prevalent, with Brown using a bit more 12 personnel in his play-calling diet. Ultimately, though, I think the big thing for Brown will be streamlined communication, and not necessarily a radical change in play design, as he’s been part of that process since before OTAs.

Reich has always been billed as a creative play-caller and play-designer. Perhaps Brown taking over the play-calling duties will help Reich more with the design aspect. That could lead to more trickery and creativity in the passing game.

To answer Reid’s related question, I think Young will benefit greatly from having his offensive coordinator call plays.

Brown and Young have an excellent relationship, and the play-caller is convicted in his belief in the signal-caller. That’s extremely important as the Panthers prepare this operational handoff of sorts. I think streamlining the communication process for the quarterback will help immensely, and I think ultimately, Young will be able to make quicker decisions.

Outside of Young, I think Tommy Tremble could have a nice surge down the stretch after the bye week. With Ian Thomas out on injured reserve, Tremble is easily the best blocker at tight end, and he showed against the Miami Dolphins that he can be a playmaker as well.

While he’s probably not in the category of free-agent additions like Sanders, Hurst and Chark, I have more faith in Tremble — a versatile young player — stepping up than one of the struggling veterans who was brought in to be used as an easy button to press for the rookie quarterback.