Some 49ers are frustrated that the team stood pat at the trade deadline

They should be frustrated.

Oct 19, 2025; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) before the game against the Atlanta Falcons at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The 49ers made a controversial decision on Tuesday.

They chose not to get anyone at the NFL's trade deadline despite obvious and glaring needs on their defense after losing Mykel Williams, Nick Bosa and Fred Warner for the season.

This decision did not go over well inside the 49ers' building, according to The Athletic's Michael Silver.

The reason so many 49ers fans--and plenty of people in the building--are so frustrated the team didn't make any trades yesterday isn't because they're in search of some knee-jerk sugar high. It's because this injury-plagued defense, as currently constituted, isn't good enough. 🤷🏻‍♂️

— Michael Silver (@MikeSilver) November 5, 2025

The 49ers fought like hell for the first two months of the season to win six games despite being the most injured team in the league. Now, Christian McCaffrey and Trent Williams are healthy, George Kittle and Jauan Jennings are getting healthy for the first time all season, and Ricky Pearsall and Brock Purdy should return at some point this season. And even if Purdy never returns, the 49ers are 5-2 with Mac Jones. So the offense has the potential to be elite down the stretch.

The defense has no such potential. As currently constituted, it's a liability against any team with a halfway decent offense. If the 49ers had traded for one impact player before the trade deadline, the defense might have been good enough to complement the offense in December and January. Now, it seems like the defense surely will be the reason the 49ers come up short this season. And yet, knowing this, the 49ers front office chose to do nothing.

I think it's fair to assume that defensive coordinator Robert Saleh would have loved the team to trade for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. He was an All Pro under Saleh on the Jets. He could have been one of the cornerstones for the 49ers for the next few seasons. Instead, the 49ers watched as the Cowboys traded for him.

New York Jets defensive lineman Quinnen Williams (95) warms up before a game against the Carolina Panthers at MetLife Stadium, Oct 19, 2025, East Rutherford, NJ, USA. | Yannick Peterhans / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

So why didn't the 49ers trade for Williams? Why didn't they do anything? Don't they want to win a Super Bowl?

Of course they do. But you have to understand that Williams has an expensive contract, and Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have gotten the 49ers to spend a ton of money since 2017. This year, the 49ers made it clear that they would not be spending big money on outside players. Instead, they wanted to go young and spend money to retain foundational members of their team.

It's possible that the owners have told Lynch and Shanahan that they can't trade and spend their way out of problems anymore and that they'll sink or swim based on their abilities to draft and develop players from now on.

If that's the case, it's too bad the owners don't want to win a Super Bowl as badly as the players and coaches do.