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Should the 49ers Renegotiate Christian McCaffrey's Contract?

McCaffrey signed a four-year, $64 million extension with the Panthers in 2020 that runs through 2025.

Grant Cohn

Feb 8, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 8, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (23) during a press conference before Super Bowl LVIII at Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
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It's unclear why Christian McCaffrey didn't show up to OTAs this week.

The reason could be that he's getting married next month, or the reason could be financial. When running backs coach Bobby Turner was asked about McCaffrey's absence, Turner said, "That's the business part," which implies McCaffrey has a grievance about his contract.

McCaffrey signed a four-year, $64 million extension with the Panthers in 2020 that runs through 2025. Then the 49ers traded for him in 2022, but they didn't renegotiate his contract. He's still playing under the deal he negotiated with Carolina four years ago. And it has zero guaranteed money left on it. Which means the 49ers could release him at any time and not owe him another dollar, an option which could seem appealing to them next year after they give gigantic contract extensions to Brandon Aiyuk and Brock Purdy.

McCaffrey's base salary for 2024 is $11.8 million, which ranks fifth on the team behind Deebo Samuel ($21 million), Trent Williams ($20.1 million), Brandon Aiyuk ($14.1 million) and Charvarius Ward ($12.6). McCaffrey might want a raise after winning the Offensive Player of the Year Award.

But the 49ers shouldn't give him one. He's going to turn 28 on June 7. He's getting old for a running back. And the 49ers can't afford to keep giving guaranteed money to older players when they have to save salary-cap space for Purdy and Aiyuk.

McCaffrey is an excellent running back, but when the 49ers reached the Super Bowl and gave him an opportunity to win it for them, he averaged just 3.5 yards per carry and fumbled. He was no Terrell Davis.

The 49ers need to invest in their passing game, not their running game.

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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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