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Ryan Clark Says the 49ers Should Trade Christian McCaffrey

This isn't such a bad idea.
Grant Cohn|
Nov 10, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) runs with the ball against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second half at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
Nov 10, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) runs with the ball against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second half at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

This isn't such a bad idea.

The 49ers are rebuilding. It's going to be extremely difficult for them to compete for a Super Bowl this year. Most likely, they're building for next year.

ESPN's Ryan Clark thinks the 49ers should take their rebuild one step further.

"I would absolutely trade Christian McCaffrey," Clark said Wednesday morning on Get Up. "I would try to get as much as I could possibly get for him. If you look at what Kyle Shanahan has been able to do, it's run the football. And I know we thought that last year they missed his versatility, but when you trade Kyle Juszczyk, you let some of that versatility go.

"And so, why not change your entire philosophy from thinking about McCaffrey as this Swiss Army Knife, getting pieces for him and allowing guys like Ricky Pearsall to touch the football more, running the football more, doing different things on quick screens? Adding other players based on the assets that you could get for him?

"Also understanding you're looking for more available players than McCaffrey was last year. You had a good stretch with him, you made your run at the Super Bowl, you didn't get it. If you're going to rebuild, rebuild completely."

I agree with Clark. McCaffrey will turn 29 in June. Which means he'll be 30 when the 49ers are back in contention. That's old for a running back who has had injury issues for most of his career.

The 49ers ran the ball just fine without McCaffrey last season. Trade him now before his value drops more than it has in the past 12 months.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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