Buccaneers should learn from Panthers with recent trade news

For what it’s worth, the Buccaneers need to stay far away from Christian McCaffrey on the trade market.

Paying running backs is the kiss of death for almost every team in the NFL. Derrick Henry will always be the outlier, and if the Buccaneers are ever lucky enough to find a player like that, they need to pull the trigger.

But for everyone else, paying running backs does far more damage than it would seem from the outside looking in, and the Panthers are discovering this for themselves with one of the best backs in the league.

NFL Talk Tweeted out earlier today that the Panthers are willing to listen to trade offers on Christian McCaffrey, and this is usually the beginning of the end.

McCaffrey has recently been unable to play due to injuries, is one of the most expensive RBs in the league, and he is overpaid at a position that no longer has value in a game that puts the pass above all else.

Now, McCaffrey was paid due to his abilities to catch, which obviously make him more valuable than an average back, but the injuries at the position are too much to bank on.

The Panthers have a mountain of problems that they could solve by signing one or two other starters rather than paying McCaffrey, and this could lead to some interesting decisions leading up to the start of the 2022 season.

The Buccaneers shouldn’t spend a second thinking about this trade, and seeing all of the teams with expensive running backs struggle in that regard should make it clear that spending money in this area is extremely dangerous.

Teams like the Panthers and the Cowboys obviously have regrets from spending so much on positions that will never live up to the value of the contracts, and Tampa needs to remember this ahead of paying Leonard Fournette this offseason or anyone else in the free agent market.

Running backs don’t matter in the modern NFL; scheme and establishing the pass do. Good teams are the ones that find a way to make cheaper running backs work, and the Buccaneers have been doing well in this regard recently.

Now is not the time to make a change.

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