I frequently say that it is tough to be a Carolina fan. They are consistently terrible after they had a wonderful start when they were a brand new expansion team. During all of their shortcoming years, they did have one or two standout players that kind of "kept the brand alive." One of those people, and probably the most noteworthy was Christian McCaffrey.
This was upsetting to me when the Panthers decided to trade him to the San Francisco 49'ers in 2022. What did they get in return for him? A 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round draft pick in the 2023 draft as well as 5th round pick in 2024.
The idea behind this was probably measured but many people speculate that while McCaffrey certainly wasn't washed up or done with, the Carolina team had fallen apart around him and it takes more than one star player to make a team good. I remember watching some of those games and how Christian would just be swarmed on every play because the defense of the other team knew exactly who was getting the ball on most snaps since there was very little else Carolina could do to advance the ball.
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As shocking and heartbreaking as this move was to us fans, we were able to look at the situation and perhaps realize that the only thing that would happen if they didn't trade McCaffrey would be that he was going to get injured since he was getting hit all the time since he was apparently the only offensive player with the Panthers that could shine.
It hurts us even worse to see him performing at the top of his game with his new squad over in San Fran though and there is already some talk about if he carries on with this level of performance, that he could very well end up being the league MVP.
Let's look at last week's Niners game vs the Arizona Cardinals, just as example. Now the Cards aren't exactly one of the best teams in the league or anything, they are 1-3 with their only victory in the regular season being over the Dallas Cowboys. However, they are no slouch of a team either. While San Fran, who was undefeated going into this game was certainly a favorite to win, the level of dominance on the part of McCaffrey was just staggering. At one point in the game the announcers said "are they going to give the ball to anyone else?"
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Christian rushed for 3 touchdowns and caught another one for 4 TD's credited to him in the game. As if that wasn't impressive enough, during this game he managed to break Jerry Rice's consecutive games with at least one TD when he scored his first TD in the 1st quarter. He had 20 carries total and averaged 5.3 yards per play. Now that's what I call a playmaker.
Since Carolina is so stinkin' terrible again this year, I might have to start watching 49ers games in order to just not be so depressed about the extremely lackluster performance of "my team." Carolina just can't seem to do anything right and the Niners are looking basically unstoppable at this point.
While i am happy to see McCaffrey doing well, it is just such a shame that he is now starting to shine like the diamond that he is but with another team. I think there are many other fans out there that have experienced this sort of things with a key player on their team in the past, but it it so painful, yet joyful, to see when it is one of your own.