By David Rogers. LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Sitting at the bottom of the NFC South with a 1-4 overall record, the Carolina Panthers fired head coach Matt Ruhle last week and overhauled the assistant coaching staff. Now, with reports flying around major media outlets, including Sports Illustrated, CBSSports, and ESPN that the team will consider trade offers for star running back Christian McCaffrey as well as its defensive standouts, one has to wonder whether the organization has given up on the 2022 season as we enter just Week 6 of the campaign.
Have the Panthers already started a rebuild as they prepare to face the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams tonight, Oct. 16, at SoFi Stadium? How will the news of potential trades for star players affect team morale and performances in the current season?
Certainly, those are concerns. NFL players are, first and foremost, professional athletes who know that at the foundation of their sport is a business. They know that they are “businessmen,” as are the guys using the lockers next to them. Personal friendships developed can quickly be reshaped as rivalries with the stroke of two general managers’ agreeing pens.
On Fox Sports’ pregame show on Oct. 16, NFL Media’s Peter Schrager suggested that it would take multiple first round picks for the Panthers to even consider a deal for McCaffrey or any of the team’s other top players. A CBS Sports report on Oct. 16 said that a fire sale after Rhule’s firing is unlikely. Quoting Schrager, “They will listen, though, and that includes Christian McCaffrey, that include the stars on defense. But it’s going to [take] multiple picks, and multiple round picks before they even start listening about trading off their prime assets.”
According to the CBS report, the Panthers have already rejected two trade offers for McCaffrey this year and that they seek high draft picks for their multi-talented, multi-dimensional running back who has four years and $63.338 million remaining on his contract.
The trade deadline is Nov. 1. McCaffrey, who is only 26 years old, is the fastest player in NFL history to total 3,000 career rushing yards and 3,000 career receiving yards. While hampered the past two seasons with injuries, he has so far played in all five games this season, rushing 72 times for 324 yards (4.5 yards per carry average), including two touchdown runs. He has also caught 26 passes for 188 yards and a TD.
It is a business, after all, even if many fans either don’t agree with the business decisions or simply don’t understand them. While it is a little surprising that the club would give up on current season not even a third of the way into it, the entrepreneur in us wouldn’t blame the Panthers for “selling high” and receiving a boatload of future in return.
