We have hit the month of the NFL trade deadline. On October 30th at 4:00 P.M. EST, all trades end for the 2018 league year.
You might remember this similar deadline from 2017. At the last minute, the San Francisco 49ers pulled the trigger on a trade for Jimmy Garoppolo, sending a 2nd round pick to the New England Patriots.
This year, it might not be as interesting. Trades don’t happen in the NFL near as much as say, the MLB. There’s several reasons for this, most notably being the fact you have to bring a player up to speed on a system without the time of a training camp to assist. So it’s a massive rush to get someone ready and be productive in the final weeks of the regular season. A great example of this is the Philadelphia Eagles acquisition of Jay Ajayi in 2017, who took a month to get more than a handful of touches and contribute. Another great example is none other than Garoppolo, who had to sit and wait for C.J. Beathard to get injured before coming in with a limited playbook and knowledge of Kyle Shanahan’s offense—for nothing more than an ‘audition’ of sorts.
So trades are a bit strange. But the date is coming up. Is there any trades you want the 49ers to make? Some officials want the team to make a trade for Nick Foles, but I just don’t see that happening. The 49ers have a player experienced with the offense in C.J. Beathard and have their quarterback of the future in Jimmy Garoppolo, plus Foles would cost valuable draft picks for a team in a rebuilding phase. It’s a different situation now than a year ago when the 49ers clearly needed their quarterback of the future and made a trade to get Garoppolo’s negotiating rights and an audition. Foles would have to learn Kyle Shanahan’s offense in what isn’t a Super Bowl season, so the whole trade seems like a waste.
On that note, is there anyone you’d like to see the 49ers offload before the deadline? Rashard Robinson put the coaching staff to their breaking point in 2017, forcing them to send him to the New York Jets for a fifth round pick. The 49ers have a lot of young wide receivers and an aging Pierre Garçon, so maybe they send him to a contender, though I doubt it.
Any moves you’d like to see the 49ers make?