The 49ers Stayed Put at Last Year’s Trade Deadline. This Season Could Be Different

Last year, the 49ers front office decided that the best decision was for San Francisco to stay put at the trade deadline. This time around, the 49ers could be aggressive buyers.

Sep 11, 2026; Melbourne, AUS; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch at Melbourne Cricket Ground. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The 49ers had an opportunity at last season’s trade deadline to make a move to bolster their team following a 6-2 start, but John Lynch and Co. decided it wasn’t the time to go all in.

There were multiple potential players who could have bolstered the team. Trey Hendrickson, Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips were all potential targets, with Phillips eventually getting traded to the Eagles, who decided to bolster their pass rush at the deadline.

The 49ers decided to stay put. Looking back, 49ers fans didn’t like it at the time, but it proved to be the right decision.

That 49ers team wasn’t quite ready to go all in and win it all with the amount of injuries it had suffered by that point. Nick Bosa, Fred Warner and Mykel Williams were already out, and more players continued to go down throughout a miraculous season in which the 49ers pieced together enough to somehow find themselves in the divisional round.

So logically, the 49ers were smart not to go all in during the 2025 season.

But this season could be different.

The 49ers look like a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Now, it’s only Week 2, so there is still plenty of time to see how this team compares to the rest of the league and, more importantly, how healthy it can remain by the Nov. 10 trade deadline.

So far, outside of Ricky Pearsall, whose impact has been inconsistent himself, most of the 49ers’ mainstays have been healthy. Players have suffered injuries here and there, but the team hasn’t dealt with the same amount of season-ending injuries that devastated it last season.

If the 49ers continue to look the way they have through these first two weeks and remain relatively healthy as they approach the trade deadline, the outlook will have to be different for this front office.

This is also a 49ers team with many of its key players on the older side.

Trent Williams is 38, George Kittle is 32, Mike Evans is 33, Christian McCaffrey is 30 and Deebo Samuel is 30. This is an aging 49ers offense, while the defense also has several veteran pieces in Fred Warner, Nick Bosa and Dre Greenlaw.

The urgency is high.

If the 49ers reach the trade deadline healthy and continue to look like a legitimate Super Bowl contender, this should be the year they become aggressive buyers.

They could still look to bolster the defensive line, potentially upgrade at receiver if injuries continue to mount there, and maybe bring in a veteran safety to bolster the secondary.

Last season, staying put made sense because the 49ers were trying to survive through an unfathomable amount of injuries. If this team reaches November healthy and still looks like a contender, surviving shouldn’t be the goal.

They should be going all in.