On Oct. 20, 2022, during a Thursday Night Football game between the New Orleans Saints and the Arizona Cardinals, an announcement came just before the half: The Carolina Panthers had traded Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers.
The trade certainly took steam out of one of the more watchable games on Thursday night that year with the Saints losing to the Cardinals 42-34. The news was less about the winner and more of this massive trade.
Saying the trade had a mixed reaction might be stretching it. “Questions” may have been better. The 49ers already did not have a first-round pick due to their trade up for Trey Lance two seasons earlier.