Evaluating The San Francisco 49ers 2022 Super Bowl Odds After Massive Christian McCaffrey Trade
If you stayed up last night to watch the Yankees get embarrassed by the Astros (again), then you were probably surprised by some massive NFL news. With the November 1st trade deadline looming, the NFL saw its first blockbuster trade of the season: The Carolina Panthers sent Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a slew of draft picks. The Panthers will receive the Niners' 2023 second, third, and fourth, as well as a 2024 fifth-round pick.
This trade leaves the Niners without a draft pick in 2023 (after they traded their 2023 first-rounder to Miami for what led to be Trey Lance). While it’s clear to see how this trade will impact the Niners’ future drafts, it’s unclear as to how it will affect their chances at a Super Bowl. So…let’s take a look at things.
Last week, the Niners were at +1400 odds to win the Super Bowl. After this McCaffrey deal, they are at +1600 (according to DraftKings Sportsbook). Yikes.
I’m sure the odds weren’t helped by their week six loss to the Falcons (where their leading rusher, Jeffrey Wilson, only totaled 25 yards). However, I thought the addition of McCaffrey would bolster the odds at least a little more. While McCaffrey is not in his 2019 form (where he ran for 1387 yards and tallied 1005 yards receiving yards) he’s still piecing together a nice year. He’s got 393 rushing yards and 277 receiving yards on the year–and now that he’s got the Niners’ O-Line in front of him, who have only allowed 9 sacks all seasons.
The Niners definitely have some things to figure out on the offensive side of things, but if they can get their offense to at least half of the level that their defense is at, then this is a scary team.
