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Will the 49ers Trade Trent Williams After June 1?

Hear me out.

Grant Cohn

Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) greets San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) after a game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) greets San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) after a game at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images / David Gonzales-Imagn Images
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If Trent Williams doesn't retire this offseason, will the 49ers trade him after June 1?

Hear me out.

The 49ers gave Trent Williams a new contract last offseason when they were making one final Super Bowl push. Unfortunately, he got injured, sat out the final seven games and the 49ers missed the playoffs. Now, they're spending significantly less money on their roster as they attempt to reset and get younger. Which makes Williams an awkward fit.

Williams will turn 37 in July. He may not have much time left in the league. He's still a great player, but he seems to have chronic ankle injuries that cost him games every year. Maybe he doesn't want to participate in a reset year. Maybe he would prefer to play for a team that's making a serious Super Bowl push, a team like the Houston Texans. He is from Texas after all.

And maybe the 49ers don't want Williams to participate in their reset. Because they're trying to build a new culture full of young players who take practicing seriously. At this point in Williams' career, he doesn't participate in OTAs, minicamp or training camp anymore, plus he practices just one day per week during the season. He also has two lockers while every other player has just one.

So no matter what the 49ers tell their young players about working hard, Williams will show them that the best players have their own set of rules.

That's not what the 49ers want their young players to learn.

Trade Trent Williams.

The 49ers just signed two left tackles -- D.J. Humphries and Andre Dillard. They can draft another one next year. They're prepared for life after Williams.

Move on.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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