Who are potential trade targets? Do the San Francisco 49ers have to be stingy with their return-from-injured reserve designations? And most of all, what the heck is wrong with the offense?
Those were some of the most asked questions this week. Between X and recent comments sections, I got more than 100 queries. Thank you for those, and apologies if I didn’t answer your question.
As always, they have been slightly edited for content.
The 49ers have the cap space to make a big splash trade. Is there a player out there you think would be the perfect fit for this current team? — Stephen S.
Do you see any positions the 49ers might want to trade for before the deadline? — Carlos V.
I’d put defensive end at the top of the list. What do they really have beyond Nick Bosa and Leonard Floyd?
Yetur Gross-Matos (knee) is out for at least a month and possibly two. And even when he’s back, he’ll have to split duties at defensive end and defensive tackle. After him, the 49ers have Sam Okuayinonu, who’s still learning the game, and Robert Beal Jr., who has yet to make any sort of impact on defense.
The 49ers seem rail-thin now. If there’s an injury? Yeesh. I’d put in a call to the New York Jets to see what it would take to get Haason Reddick. Perhaps Reddick would be interested in a one-year (read: half-year) deal in which he shows off his stuff opposite Bosa and then becomes a free agent in March.
If Reddick is a no go, maybe the New York Giants are willing to part ways with Azeez Ojulari, who had 13 1/2 sacks in his first two seasons in New York but who has been an afterthought this season.
Other potential positions of need and trade candidates:
Safety: Budda Baker (Arizona Cardinals), Jordan Fuller (Carolina Panthers/IR hamstring)
Running back: Raheem Mostert (Miami Dolphins), Jeff Wilson Jr. (Dolphins)
GO DEEPER
Thompson: The 49ers are in save-the-season mode already, and a familiar foe is next up
Any chance Robert Saleh could come back as a defensive advisor this year to help out the defense? — Steven G.
Is there a chance? Sure. But it’s unlikely. Saleh is still being paid — a lot — by the Jets this year, so he doesn’t need the money. The 49ers also hired a former head coach/defensive guru in the offseason in Brandon Staley. They’d risk a too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen situation if they added Saleh.
The Jets coach to keep an eye on this season is their new interim coach, Jeff Ulbrich. The 49ers tried to pry him from New York in February, but couldn’t. If the Jets hire a new coach at the end of the season I wonder whether the 49ers would resume their pursuit of Ulbrich, a former 49er and San Jose native.
Charvarius Ward said there was a “weird” feeling in the building. Do other players feel that way and, if so, does it feel like a rut or are the guys still optimistic? — Phran C.
Over the last few years, the weirdest locker-room vibe I’ve felt — by far — was after last year’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings. I’d say that loss went beyond mere frustration — the players felt something was fundamentally off, that they were being asked to play in a way they weren’t used to, that they weren’t themselves.
I don’t get that vibe now. Are they frustrated they let two winnable division games slip through their fingers? Yes. Are they as angry as they were following the 2023 Vikings loss? No, not even close.
With Bosa’s and George Kittle’s recent comments about coaches not making the needed in-game adjustments, is there a chance Kyle Shanahan could lose the locker room if he doesn’t get things figured out? I feel players might be tired of coming up short with him as HC. — Steve L.
My sense is that while the fans may feel that way, the players don’t. First, Bosa seemed to back away from those comments on Tuesday. (I wasn’t in the Kittle scrum, so I’m not sure what he said). Second, from Trent Williams to Kyle Juszczyk to Christian McCaffrey, there’s been consistent reverence over the years for Shanahan and his offense. The offensive players, especially the ones who have played elsewhere, put Shanahan on a pedestal.
Of course, if the season spirals away from the 49ers, who knows what will happen? Some heads are sure to roll. But my guess is that, like in 2020, a truly bad season will be mainly due to injuries, not coaching. After all, the fact that the 49ers’ 2024 offense hasn’t been as good as their 2023 offense probably has something to do with them missing the NFL’s 2023 Offensive Player of the Year.
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We heard this offseason that Jordan Mason worked on his receiving skills. But using Mason as a receiving threat/checkdown out of the backfield is missing from the weekly game plan as opposed to when McCaffery is in. Any thoughts? — Milan P.
Yes. Being a receiver out of the backfield is more than just having good hands. It’s about being on the same page as the quarterback, making the right decision on choice routes, being reliable.
Some running backs — Wilson, McCaffrey — have quickly created that connection. I’d say Mason is building that connection. Brock Purdy and the 49ers clearly aren’t looking for him as a receiver out of the backfield. No running back who’s run at least 50 pass routes has been targeted less than Mason this season. (I think that’s also because the 49ers don’t have a real third-down option).
Jordan Mason is building a connection with Brock Purdy in the passing game, but few running backs are as effective as Christian McCaffrey as a receiver. (Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images)
What’s with the lack of play action this year? The 49ers were up by at least 10 for most of the game against the Cardinals, and it felt like Purdy stayed in shotgun the whole time. — Joe B.
Here’s what Purdy said when he was asked that question Tuesday:
“I would say, you’ve got to be running the ball really, really well and then setting up certain plays and stuff. Where we’re at, I think we’re running the ball really well. But I think within schemes and trying to win with certain plays drawn up, for us it’s just been drop-back plays. We trust in the guys to just be able to drop back and allow me to go through a progression and rip it to them.
“We’re not going into a game saying they’re going to drop back a lot so we’re going to stay away from the play-action pass. We still have plays dialed up in the play-action world, but we just haven’t had opportunities to run them in the right situations or whatnot. But again, we’re trusting in Kyle (Shanahan) within all the play calls with that regard. And so, that’s just sort of just how the flow of the game has gone and the play calls have gone.”
According to PFF, Purdy’s play-action snaps are indeed down this season:
- 2022: 22.9 percent
- 2023: 23.1 percent
- 2024: 17.6 percent
Those numbers, however, are skewed by the Vikings game, which saw only three play-action plays in 45 dropbacks. (They only had three play-action plays in last year’s Vikings game, too). Remove that game, and the 49ers’ rate is 21.1 percent, which isn’t a huge change from previous seasons.
It’s definitely a topic to revisit at the halfway mark.
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Linebacker De’Vondre Campbell seems to be a liability. Any idea if a new starter will be introduced there before Dre Greenlaw’s return? — George M.
Yes, the 49ers have been grooming Dee Winters for that role, but Winters’ season-long ankle injury has gummed up the succession plan. Winters is not on this week’s injury report, however, a good sign.
After him? Yikes:
• Curtis Robinson is out for the season with a torn ACL.
• Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles might be out for Thursday’s game with a calf injury. Even when healthy, he hasn’t been any better than Campbell.
• Tatum Bethune is a rookie who’s gotten most of his practice snaps at middle linebacker, not the weakside spot that Campbell and Greenlaw play.
• Jalen Graham is a possibility. But the 49ers didn’t think enough of him initially to even keep him on the squad. They recently signed him off the Washington Commanders’ practice squad.
• DaShaun White is a practice squadder who’s never appeared in an NFL game.
Dee Winters is off the injury report and could be ready to eat into De’Vondre Campbell’s playing time. (Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images)
With the Philadelphia Eagles releasing Devin White, any chance the 49ers bring him in for a workout/signing at a discounted rate considering he hasn’t played much and the 49ers could use some linebacker help? — Joey C.
Yes, maybe, especially if the 49ers suffered another injury at linebacker. But you have to wonder about White, the No. 5 pick in 2019. He got benched by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the team that drafted him, and he was recently cut by the linebacker-needy Eagles. He also doesn’t play special teams, something every non-starting linebacker needs to be able to play.
When he’s back, does Greenlaw count as one of the eight return-from-IR designations, or because it was from last year and he was on PUP it doesn’t? — Charles D.
Does the Kalia Davis’ return count as an in-season IR return or was he part of the new designation to start the season? — Colin L.
Per the 49ers, Davis counts as one of the eight designations but Greenlaw does not. When Ricky Pearsall is ready to come off of the non-football injury list, he also will count. So once Pearsall is back, the 49ers will have used two of eight designations.
Obviously, with McCaffrey, Gross-Matos and Jon Feliciano potentially coming back from IR later this season and with Talanoa Hufanga and Jake Moody potentially going on IR soon, the 49ers might have to walk a fine line in November and December.
Did Pearsall have some sort of setback or was he never going to be ready this quickly? – Bradley B.
No setback. I watched him working out on a side field last week. He was wearing some sort of harness related to his chest. I saw him rotate his right pectoral muscle — the one that took a bullet — a couple of times like he was trying to work out a kink.
The obvious conclusion is that the muscle is still repairing itself after the trauma. After all, the incident only took place 39 days ago.
Is there a light at the end of this hole, or will the dirt eventually overwhelm and bury this team for the 2024 season? — Thiago V.
During the Trojan War, the Greeks’ hope rested with Achilles.
The 49ers’ hope rests with a pair of Achilles — McCaffrey’s and Greenlaw’s.
If they’re back at full strength, that’s an awfully powerful light.
(Top photo of Haason Reddick: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
