SANTA CLARA, California. — The San Francisco 49ers got a jolt offensively when they made the bold decision in October to trade four draft picks to add Christian McCaffrey to an already large group of playmakers.
The Philadelphia Eagles made an aggressive trade of their own to improve their offense when they added game-changing receiver AJ Brown in a draft-day trade.
The NFC powerhouses’ two moves are big reasons the Niners (15-4) and Eagles (15-3) will meet in Sunday’s conference title game in Philadelphia with a Super Bowl spot at stake.
“We expected that and he exceeded all of our expectations,” said 49ers tight end George Kittle of the trade that brought McCaffrey to San Francisco.
McCaffrey was bottom in Carolina and the Niners stuttered a bit on offense as they sent four draft picks to the Panthers to add McCaffrey.
McCaffrey returned to star level, making him one of the most dangerous players in the league, and the Niners became the NFL’s most diverse offense with such diverse players as McCaffrey, Kittle, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and Kyle Juszczyk.
“He’s a guy who’s going to be very lucky if you leave him alone with a linebacker: he’s going to tear you apart,” Kittle said. “You have to put two guys on him. And if you’re pushing at all, bring in a linebacker and every other guy on the field has a one-on-one. Whether that’s Deebo, Brandon Aiyuk, me, Kyle Juszczyk. That’s a lot of one-on-ones where I’ll pick my guy over the rest. What if you double someone else? Good luck to Christian McCaffrey.”
Since McCaffey started in Week 8 against the Los Angeles Rams, the 49ers have won 12 straight games. During that span, the Niners rank second in the NFL at 30.4 points per game and second at 6.10 yards per game.
“It’s a force multiplier,” general manager John Lynch said at the time of the trade. “It makes everyone around him better.”
McCaffrey leads the NFL with 1,341 yards from scrimmage in the 11 games since he became a starter and has the most touchdowns with 12, including at least one in his last eight games.
But he is far from satisfied.
“What makes it so fun is this constant pursuit of perfection,” he said. “I think everyone on this team has that.”
Brown had a similar impact on the Eagles after being acquired by Tennessee during the draft for a first- and third-round pick and immediately given a four-year, $100 million contract with a $57 million guarantee.
The move helped Jalen Hurts develop into an MVP finalist and elevated a team that was eliminated in the wildcard round as a seventh seed a year ago to the top team in the NFC.
“I thought we had a lot of parts to try out and do a potential run,” Brown said. “We just have to put it together and run it. I think things are going well of course. We still have a lot of work to do. It’s not really the time to reflect on yourself.”
Brown had 155 yards on his Eagles debut and went on to roll as many as 88 catches for 1,496 yards and 11 touchdowns. He surpassed Mike Quick’s 1,409 yards in 1983 for the most rushing yards in a season in team history.
Brown’s addition alongside DeVonta Smith has given the Eagles a much tougher offense than the one San Francisco faced in Week 2 of the 2021 season.
“The first thing is his size and strength,” said Niners defense coordinator DeMeco Ryans. “That’s the only thing that sets him apart from a lot of receivers, but not only that, when he catches the ball, he shifts it into a different gear. His post-catch run has been quite dynamic this year. He’s big where he can go down the field and play with the deep balls, but he’s also just catching the 5-yard routes and turning it onto the field and turning it into an explosive.”
The Eagles see the difference McCaffrey made on offense for the 49ers as well.
“You just add another really, really good player to your organization and it shows,” defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said. “He can hit you in many different ways, and we need to have a plan for how he hits people.”
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AP sportswriter Dan Gelston of Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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