The 49ers are almost certainly going to be buyers at the trade deadline and, if anything, their first defeat of the season at the hands of the Atlanta Falcons is likely to have increased the desire inside the organization to make a move that significantly boosts San Francisco’s Super Bowl chances.
San Francisco sits at 6-1 heading into its bye following a turnover-strewn performance in a 29-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, which illustrated the 49ers’ key areas of need as wide receiver Mike Evans’
absence proved telling and Raheem Morris’ defense struggled to produce pass rush after a couple of weeks excelling at getting after the quarterback.
Wideout, interior defensive line and edge rusher could all be on the agenda for the 49ers at the trade deadline.
But, having had so many injuries at receiver and on the defensive line, head coach Kyle Shanahan pointed out there is a balance the 49ers have to strike as they ponder what moves to make.
Speaking on his Monday conference call, Shanahan said of potential trade activity:
“That’s stuff, I know [president of football operations and general manager] John [Lynch] and our whole personnel department, they discuss that seven days a week for a long time right now. Just hearing more about things they’ve been doing on the plane last night, I’ll get to watch some stuff here now that I’m done with our team and we’ll be in contact over this next week. We still have two weeks for it. We still have the week when we get back, but if there’s stuff that makes sense that can improve our team in any spot, we’d love for that to happen. The obvious injury spots to us have been receiver and D-Line. We are getting a number of those guys back at both positions, but that also doesn’t exclude us from looking to something that would make sense to help us.”
Asked if they have to consider the potential for future injuries when discussing trade plans, Shananhan replied:
“Without a doubt, but that’s also the challenge of IR and how many people can return from IR. We were almost not able to field a 48-man team because we have guys who are hurt who are coming back that aren’t on IR. So that almost got us yesterday. When you trade and add players, that might make sense for one or two weeks, but then other guys come back, now you’ve got to cut people. So it’s got to make sense for all that. We would love to just stockpile some players in case some people get hurt going forward because the odds are people do, but that’s what the rules of this league with how many you can carry on a roster and things like that don’t allow you to stockpile players at the position. So, you’ve got to kind of see where you’re at and try to guess the future.”
Striking a balance between protecting the team against further injuries while avoiding a situation where multiple players have to be cut is likely to be more difficult at receiver.
Evans and Deebo Samuel will be back after the bye, and the Niners still have Demarcus Robinson and De’Zhaun Stribling to return from injured reserve. It’s difficult to see the 49ers wanting to cut more than one of Jordan Watkins, Christian Kirk or Jacob Cowing — with the later the most likely candidate to be let go — so San Francisco will have to be very calculated as they look at the avenues for receiver help.
It should be a little easier on the defensive line. The 49ers have only eight healthy defensive linemen on the active roster and Khalid Kareem is an edge defender who, despite some very strong play against the run, they should be confident of sneaking back onto the practice squad. With C.J. West and Sam Okuayinonu the only candidates to return from injured reserve, there is scope for additions on the interior defensive line and on the edge.
The good news is that, as Shanahan articulated, the 49ers have plenty of time before the Nov. 10 deadline. However, the Niners will likely want to get any new additions acclimated as quickly as possible. As the 49ers prepare to attempt to get back to winning ways after the bye, the difficult decisions on those trade calculations will likely be made in the very near future.
