49ers’ Kyle Shanahan: Keeping Christian McCaffrey away from Rams was ‘definitely a bonus’

The San Francisco 49ers pulled off a Los Angeles Rams-like move on Thursday night, trading a haul of draft capital for now-former Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey. Of course, the Rams were interested too. However, it was the 49ers who were able to offer the Panthers the best deal.

Last year, head coach Kyle Shanahan tried to get his team involved in trade talks for quarterback Matthew Stafford. The Rams came out on top in that situation, beating the 49ers before they had a chance to start a real dialogue with the Detroit Lions.

How much did the Rams’ interest influence the 49ers push to get the McCaffrey deal done? And how does it feel to finally keep a big-name player away from the division rival?

“It’s definitely a bonus,” Shanahan said. “I think everybody would love the opportunity to have a player like Christian. And so I think everyone looks into it. But it’s also nice to keep a good player away from a team that we have to compete with year in and year out. So that definitely helps.”

The 49ers always seemed hesitant to trade away draft capital during the Shanahan and John Lynch era. Knowing that draft picks are a gamble anyway, the Rams were always willing to part with them for proven commodities.

San Francisco’s philosophy appears to be shifting in that direction. Last year, the team surrendered multiple first-round picks to trade up for quarterback Trey Lance in the draft. Now, they aggressively pursued McCaffrey, an All-Pro running back. Has the way the Rams have made moves in recent years influenced the 49ers’ thinking?

“It’s not just the Rams, but watching a number of teams over the years, since we’ve been here, just make trades and stuff,” Shanahan said. “Some work, some don’t. But it just wasn’t like how I think it was for all of us 10 years ago, even 15 years ago. That stuff was unheard of. You didn’t even discuss it.

“It’s always a risk in everything you do. And sometimes it’s a risk not doing it. … I watch other teams who have done it too. It’s nice to watch people do it and see what’s good from it, what’s bad from it. I like that it’s not how it used to be in that it was always out of the discussion.”