The 49ers might not be done dealing ahead of the Nov. 4 NFL trade deadline.
Two days after trading for New England Patriots defensive end Keion White, San Francisco president of football operations and general manager John Lynch explained why the team isn’t shutting the door on more moves while speaking to KNBR’s “Murph and Markus” on Thursday.
“I’ll never say never, because we still have some time left on this deadline,” Lynch told Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher. “But we’re also in a situation — at the end, you sit down and say, ‘OK, what are we looking for?’ We weren’t completely opposed to it, but we’d like whoever we trade for to be here for more than just the remainder of this year. So, you get some opportunity of time working in.”
The 49ers are in an interesting spot.
At 5-3, San Francisco is in the thick of the NFC playoff race. But on the other hand, the 49ers truly are banged up like no other, particularly as All-Pros Nick Bosa and Fred Warner are out for the remainder of the 2025 NFL season. Winning the Super Bowl appears to be much harder now compared to when the campaign started.
White, at least, was brought to the Bay to address the defensive line’s abundance of injuries. That also means Lynch actively is pursuing ways to improve the 49ers’ current situation.
However, that doesn’t mean San Francisco will exchange assets just to do it.
“We also want to keep our draft picks,” Lynch said. “We just saw what we could do with a lot of draft picks; we have that next year as well, and we don’t want to eat into that too much. We wanted to bolster our team for this year, and we feel like we’ve done that.”
Several of San Francisco’s rookies are playing crucial roles this season. And Lynch and the 49ers were able to land White for a late-round pick in a low-risk, high-reward decision.
They also know that reinforcements — hopefully — are on the way as other players get healthier.
“We’ll also get [Bryce] Huff back at some point here, and I think it could become a good group,” Lynch said of the defensive line. “We need to play better there, and I think that sometimes could be the thing that gives life to everyone and makes everyone a little better.
“And hopefully [White] could have that effect. We’re going to need it this week.”
The 49ers will enter the trade deadline with a 6-3 record if they can beat the similarly banged-up New York Giants in Week 9 on Sunday morning at MetLife Stadium.
Perhaps the better San Francisco plays, the more likely Lynch and the 49ers will be interested in making trades.
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