Niners Nation
Many analysts, both local and national media, are projecting the San Francisco 49ers to make at least one trade ahead of the deadline. The ranges are all over, from a prominent name like Trey Hendrickson to a familiar face like Arden Key.
The caliber of player the Niners acquire, or the draft capital they’re willing to part ways with, will let us know how the front office feels about the prospects of this year’s team being a Super Bowl contender.
It’s becoming a bit of a norm for the 49ers to make at least one acquisition around the trade deadline. You can go back to 2019, when an offense with inexperienced wide receivers needed a reliable veteran. Or, you can skip ahead to 2023, when Chase Young was believed to be the piece that would boost the Niners’ pass rush.
The 49ers felt like they were one piece away in 2019. On Wednesday, Kyle Shanahan was asked if he’s getting those same sentiments about this year’s squad:
“No, I don’t. I don’t feel at all like that. I think at that time we had a Super Bowl defense that was as good as anyone in the League and probably had been for like 10 years and it was pretty obvious. And I thought at the time some of the receivers we were dependent on weren’t there and we were playing some young rookies and we thought we needed to add another guy. But yeah, I don’t totally see it the same situation as right now.”
Shanahan isn’t using hyperbole when talking about that 2019 defense. By just about any advanced metric, that’s been a top-three defense in the NFL during Kyle Shanahan’s time as a head coach. That was a championship-level defense. A historic one worthy of pushing the chips into the middle and “going all in.”
The 49ers have been a top-10ish offense, but they haven’t been healthy, consistent, or explosive enough to warrant a big-name trade. But as long as the team keeps winning, especially if the wins are convincing, the itch to address the pass rush will grow stronger by the day.
