The Rams wanted Christian McCaffrey. They were in talks with the Panthers about acquiring the All-Pro running back, but the 49ers beat them out with a better offer.
According to Peter Schrager, the Rams offered a second-, third- and fifth-round pick. The 49ers topped them by trading a second, third, fourth and fifth for McCaffrey, an extra fourth-rounder that the Rams couldn’t provide.
Los Angeles may not have landed McCaffrey in what would’ve been a blockbuster in-season trade, but Les Snead did accomplish one thing: He helped drive up the price paid by San Francisco. In his column on Monday morning, Peter King wrote that an NFL executive told him McCaffrey’s price was driven by a bidding war between the Rams and 49ers.
“The price was driven by Niners versus Rams, not by Christian McCaffrey,” said one exec who was involved in the talks over the past week. The Rams had second- and third-round picks next year, but they’d traded their 2023 first-, fourth- and fifth-rounders already. L.A. was willing to give its two, but trading the three would have been exceedingly painful; it would have left them without a pick till the end of the fourth round, when they were slated to have a Compensatory Pick. Seeing that there’s a good chance the Rams will have major needs in the draft, particularly on the offensive line, next year, not picking till about 140th overall (the fourth-round Comp area) would have been a killer even for a gambler like Rams GM Les Snead.
The Rams didn’t need McCaffrey. The 49ers probably didn’t either. But there’s no question San Francisco got better by making this trade.
The problem for the 49ers now is that their draft capital is very limited in 2023, with their first picks coming late in the third round as compensatory selections. The Rams are familiar with that position, and it’s not always the easiest one to navigate.
The Rams would’ve loved to land McCaffrey, but they set their budget and didn’t want to go above what they were willing to pay.
