The 49ers have a typical answer when it comes to questions about trading players, and they went back to it Tuesday during John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan’s press conference to open training camp.
Lynch and Shanahan almost always say they’ll do anything that makes their team better and that no trade is off the table. The one exception was last offseason during Nick Bosa’s prolonged contract negotiations that bled all the way into Week 1 of the regular season.
Last offseason Lynch unequivocally stated that Bosa would not be traded. He didn’t have the same answer Tuesday.
“Well, I did say that with Bosa and I felt that way, but I think, again, no absolutes there,” Lynch told reporers. “We fully intend on Brandon being a Niner moving forward. We’re always open to listen to things, but like I said, we expect Brandon to be an integral part of our team like he has been and excited about that.”
It’s not a surprise Lynch went back to the standard answer after straying with Bosa.
The fact is Bosa plays perhaps the second-most important position on the roster for the 49ers. He was coming off a Defensive Player of the Year award and offered a cornerstone pass rusher on a team that prioritizes that group above all else on defense.
Unless the Chiefs were going to offer something like Patrick Mahomes for Bosa, the DE wasn’t getting moved.
While Lynch may not anticipate moving Aiyuk, which it doesn’t sound like he is, the wide receiver position doesn’t hold as much weight on the 49ers’ roster as defensive end. If a team wanted to send their top pass rusher or a good, younger, cheaper wide receiver, San Francisco might be spurred to action. Alas, such a trade would have materialized by now and unless the 49ers are fleecing the team they’re trading with they don’t have much incentive to send the All-Pro elsewhere.
