'Non-Offer Offer' for Christian McCaffrey is Business as Usual for Howie Roseman
The revelation that Howie Roseman offered a third-round pick for Christian McCaffrey doesn’t mean as much as many believe.
The non-offer offer by Roseman, reported by SI’s Albert Breer, is business as usual for the Eagles' GM, who is one of the few NFL movers and shakers who likes to keep his hand on the pulse of everything in order to better understand the marketplace as a whole.
McCaffrey was ultimately traded to San Francisco for four draft picks – second-, third-, and fourth-round picks in 2023, and a 2024 fifth-rounder.
According to Breer, "The Panthers told San Francisco, Buffalo and other teams (which included the Eagles) that would subsequently call, that a first-rounder alone might get it done, and that a first-rounder and a later pick would get it done."
Forget about left field, Roseman wasn’t even in the stadium with his “offer” vs. what the 49ers came up with and that tells you that Philadelphia wasn’t the least bit serious.
"More calls poured in Tuesday, with some teams just fishing — offering a third-rounder or a fourth-rounder to see whether a discount was in the offing," Breer wrote. "The Broncos and Eagles were among those teams (both have GMs who like to investigate pretty much everything). The day clarified who was really in and who wasn’t."
Roseman had not even cold-called until very late in the process a Carolina source told SI Eagles Today.
McCaffrey was a player Philadelphia was smitten with in the 2017 pre-draft process and is on a very short list as one of the better all-around running backs in football when healthy but the Stanford product hasn’t played a full season since 2019 and missed 23 of a possible 33 games over the prior two seasons.
When right, McCaffrey is spectacular and everything the Eagles have always wanted in a modern running back. He ran for 1,387 yards and 15 touchdowns in that 2019 season while also catching 116 passes for 1,005 and another four TDs.
In the lead-up to the 2017 draft, multiple scouts said that McCaffrey, the son of former Pro Bowl receiver and three-time Super Bowl champion Ed McCaffrey, ran better routes than all of the actual WRs in that draft class.
The younger McCaffrey went No. 8 overall to Carolina, well out of range for Philadelphia, who selected Derek Barnett at No. 14.
Those who claim the Eagles would never even consider a RB in the first round in the modern environment would have been shocked if C-Mac fell.
However, this wasn’t the opportunity to write that wrong because McCaffrey, now 26, also signed a four-year extension with the Panthers that runs through 2025.
So, San Francisco not only acquired the player, but it also agreed to salaries of $11.8 million, $11.8M, and $12M over the next three years at a position near the bottom of the totem pole around the NFL when it comes to value.
The Eagles would have taken on that financial hit only at a deeply discounted rate when it came to draft capital and quickly moved on when it became clear many more serious suitors were real.
What the light C-Mac dalliance does reveal is that Philadelphia would consider upgrades at RB despite the fact that Miles Sanders is having a career year when it comes to volume, entering the bye week for Philadelphia as the fourth-leading rusher in the NFL.
Sanders himself is in the final year of his rookie deal after being a second-round pick in 2019.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
