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On Tuesday, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke to the media and addressed just about every wide receiver on the team. He still believes in Dante Pettis. When talking about Marquise Goodwin, Shanahan made it seem like the team isn’t interested in releasing the speedy veteran. Here is his full quote:
“We wouldn’t release Marquise. He’s too valuable. I know he fell out of the rotation last year, then he had an injury (and) wanted to go on IR so he could get it cleaned up. I think it is right now. I haven’t seen him for a while. Marquise is a guy who can play in this league. If he’s on this team, he’s going to be competing with that group and, if not, I feel pretty confident another team would want him.”
If you saw what Goodwin did toward the end of the season in 2017 with Jimmy Garoppolo, you’d have thought Goodwin would have been a 1,000-yard receiver the past two seasons. Injuries and inconsistencies prevented that from happening. Shanahan said, “We could, yeah,” when asked if the 49ers were open to trading Goodwin. I’m not sure what his market is, but if the 49ers could get even a fourth-round pick for Goodwin, that’d be a no brainer. Realistically, it’d be a fifth-round pick I’d imagine. Overthecap says the Niners would save $3.6 million if they release Goodwin before June 1. That figure stays the same if Goodwin is traded.
Shanahan all but said the team is trying to trade Goodwin:
“You also don’t get rid of valuable people just for nothing. So we’ll have him come back and compete, and if that doesn’t work out, we could always possibly trade him. There are lots of things that are open. But I don’t know that exact answer yet.”
Cutting Goodwin makes sense. If it costs the same to trade him, why not try and get back value? That’s the smart business move. I think the question becomes, what would the 49ers be willing to accept compensation wise to part ways with Goodwin? That will be more telling of Goodwin’s value than what Shanahan says at the combine, knowing everyone is listening.