Kyle Shanahan Leaves Door Open for 49ers to Acquire Julio Jones

San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan spoke on the idea of Julio Jones to the 49ers in a trade.

Julio Jones wants out of Atlanta.

Acquiring his services would improve any offense in the league, especially the San Francisco 49ers offense.

Kyle Shanahan would be able to utilize any superb talent to the fullest. The fact that he is familiar with Jones during his time as the offensive coordinator for the Falcons just puts an exclamation mark on that point. While there hasn't been any reports of legitimate talks of a trade for Jones, it did not stop Shanahan from answering a question on the idea of Jones to the 49ers.

"Anyone I've coached in the past that I have relationships with, especially a great dude like Julio, obviously I have a ton of respect for," said Shanahan at his OTA presser. "We’re always interested in improving our team. We’ll never just say, ‘Hey, we're done, we can't improve our team.’ You always try to try to make that happen. But yeah, it makes it harder when you've already given up some stuff to make some moves and things like that. Everything's got to fit in. It's got to make sense. But, I would never say we're just done.”

Shanahan left the door open for the 49ers to acquire Jones.

That does not mean it will happen nor does it make more likely now that he has spoken on it. He is just leaving the door open because he has to. Had there been no consequence for him to speak plainly, Shanahan would absolutely rave about the idea of acquiring Jones. The offense of the 49ers would have two All Pro caliber receivers with him and George Kittle.

But the reality is the 49ers have already surrendered a hefty amount of draft capital when they traded up from No. 12 to No. 3 to draft Trey Lance. The 49ers are certainly up against it when it comes to draft capital. The way Shanahan puts it, the 49ers are not going to heavily pursue him. They likely will tap the Falcons on the shoulder to gauge the cost of a trade, but that is common business in the NFL. 

I do not believe a trade for Jones will occur for the 49ers as the best they could offer is a second-round pick and some change. Not unless they throw in a player to sweeten the deal, but the Falcons would likely want to poach a young, cost-effective talent of the 49ers. 

Jones to the 49ers is not a definite no, but surely it is a slim chance to happen.