The Carolina Panthers have a Christian McCaffrey conundrum—one that can be fixed by the oft-injured back finally staying healthy or the team dumping off his hefty contract elsewhere. So if the answer is ultimately the latter of the two, how may that solution look?
Founder and managing editor of Spotrac Mike Ginnitti has an idea of his own, involving ye ol’ faithful pipeline up to Orchard Park, N.Y. On “The Spotrac Podcast,” he suggests the Panthers send the two-time All-Pro to the Buffalo Bills for what he considers a substantial haul of wide receiver Cole Beasley, a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick.
“It’s a lot of compensation,” Ginnitti suggests. “The reason I threw Beasley on this list is A, I believe the Bills will move on anyway. And B, I’m bringing in Christian McCaffrey to be a quasi slot receiver, because I think that’s actually where his career is headed. No matter where he is, even if he stays in Carolina. I do think that’s how you keep him healthy.”
Well, geez. Then maybe the Panthers should just keep him and do that instead of shipping off their best player for a soon-to-be 33-year-old wideout, a late third-round pick and a lottery ticket.
“What I’m basically saying here is ‘Carolina, go draft your next running back with whatever we give you here,” Ginnitti expands. “‘And, oh, by the way, you need a slot receiver, too. Here’s Cole Beasley for one-year, $6 million—not that big of a deal.’ So I do think there’s a little bit of logic on their side as well.”
Ginnitii is certainly spot-on about that type of logic for Carolina. Without picks in the second and third round of the 2022 draft, perhaps it makes sense for the Panthers to load off the burden of that pact in recouping some much needed draft capital.
General manager Scott Fitterer and head coach Matt Rhule, with a vital 2022 campaign coming up, don’t exactly have a plentiful amount of cap space to work with. They are plentiful, however, in areas of need—specifically at quarterback, tight end, linebacker, safety and almost every spot on their offensive line two times over.
But, when McCaffrey’s healthy, he’s easily amongst the game’s most valuable players outside of the quarterback position. And while the Panthers don’t have any assurances of that health, especially in his case, there has to be a better deal out there for a dynamic talent like him . . . right?
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