What Christian McCaffrey's New Contract Extension Means for the Running Back Position?
Over the past few years, running backs have been on the unfortunate side of a pay trend in the NFL. With the league being more pass-heavy than ever, quarterbacks and wide receivers’ pay has blossomed over the past several years. This has resulted in running backs pay slipping or forcing them to adapt to a more pass-heavy offense where they must be able to catch the ball with great efficiency. Christian McCaffrey might help end that pay trend toward running backs with his dominance at the position in the rushing and receiving game. San Francisco recognizes how valuable McCaffrey is to the team and went out and signed him to a brand new extension for two years, worth $38 million. This deal will keep him on the team for the next four years, as he still has two years remaining on his prior contract.
Prior to being traded to the 49ers two years ago, McCaffrey was regarded as a seriously talented running back with the Panthers but was plagued with injuries throughout his early career. However, since joining the 49ers, McCaffrey has dominated averaging 120 scrimmage yards and over a touchdown per game while remaining mostly healthy. The impact he has made on the 49ers' offense can not be understated, all at a price that is rather cheap for the value he provides to the team. Over the next four years, McCaffrey will make an average of about $16 million annually with this new extension. This is considered a great longevity contract extension for McCaffrey to protect him from a potentially serious decline given his injury history and age regression several years from now.
Unfortunately, this contract extension isn’t going to move the pendulum in terms of fixing running back pay across the league. The reason for this is that there are always young running backs coming out of college that teams can draft in the later rounds that are very cheap and have less tread on the tires than many veteran NFL running backs. Additionally, there have been many running backs in recent history that have been seen as the best in the league for a few years then have sharp declines. Some of these examples include Ezekiel Elliott and Todd Gurley. Both of these guys were feared throughout the league for several years in their very short primes and then suddenly lost their explosiveness and never looked the same again. Examples like these running backs have caused the running back market to be associated with higher risk, resulting in teams giving out less money and shorter-length deals to veteran running backs.
What’s shocking is how big the pay discrepancy is for running backs compared to wide receivers. With McCaffrey slated to get paid around $16 million over the next four years, that would make him the 25th highest-paid receiver in the NFL, just behind mediocre players like Jerry Jeudy, Christian Kirk, Diontae Johnson, and Brandin Cooks. Therefore, it is easy to see how running backs, by virtue of their position, have a steeper hill to climb in order to get paid a big contract than other offensive positions. Even with McCaffrey’s extension maintaining him as the highest-paid running back in the NFL, it does make you wonder, if running back pay will continue to be left behind as wide receivers pay skyrockets or if there will be change in the future.
