The San Francisco 49ers are expected to make a trade at some point in the coming weeks. Whether that’s for a pass rusher, member of the secondary, or wide receiver remains to be seen.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell
has the 49ers parting ways with a safety to the Buffalo Bills for a Day 3 pick in this hypothetical trade:
Bills get: S Jason Pinnock, 2027 seventh-round pick
49ers get: 2027 sixth-round pickSafety has been an issue with a lot of competitive teams around the NFL this season. There just aren’t many rosters with serious safety depth that could justify a trade. One of the few exceptions is a team that has injury issues just about everywhere besides safety right now. The 49ers started Pinnock in September, but that was always going to be a temporary solution. He fell out of the lineup altogether last week, with the Niners preferring Marques Sigle, Ji’Ayir Brown and the returning Malik Mustapha at safety to him.
Pinnock is not going to transform the Bills’ defense, but he has been passable as a center fielder as a pro and would offer the Bills some depth. Bishop had to briefly leave the Falcons game, leading the Bills to turn to 34-year-old veteran Jordan Poyer for a handful of snaps. Poyer was once an essential part of Sean McDermott’s defense, but those days have come and gone. The 49ers would add a little bit of draft capital with this deal, something they could use to address one of the eight or nine positions on their roster that have been riddled with injuries this season as part of another deal.
The 49ers signed Pinnock to hold the fort down until Malik Mustapha returned from injury, and Pinnock did that. The thought was that Pinnock’s familiarity with Robert Saleh’s scheme would make this an easy transition, but it was anything but.
Pinnock was targeted eight times in five games. He allowed seven receptions, including three touchdowns, and was fortunate that he was targeted on a couple of other busts during that stretch. Pinnock didn’t often rotate down to play the run, but his 11.1 missed-tackle percentage on a limited sample was also an issue.
The 49ers only used Pinnock on two snaps on special teams, so it’s not as if they’d miss his skill set in the third phase of the game, either.
The least surprising change to the lineup in Week 6 was Pinnock not seeing the field on defense. Now, in a contract year, San Francisco would be wise to unload a player they can do without for any type of draft compensation.
