By Brian Murphy
The 49ers made no moves at the trade deadline, and I suppose if we all did our homework, we shouldn’t be surprised.
We may be disappointed, and we may be looking at the rest of 2025 differently now. But we probably shouldn’t be surprised.
Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have been telling us either directly or indirectly that the entire 2025 season was not Super Bowl-or-bust, despite that sentiment being anathema to every 49ers fan who remembers Candlestick Park and Pete Kugler.
Google him, millennials and Gen Z. I’ll help: Pete Kugler was just yet another talent in a long line of talent in the stacked ownership era of Ed DeBartolo, Jr., when the franchise existed to tilt at Super Bowl windmills annually. Pete Kugler played defensive tackle, which the 2025 49ers could use, and quite frankly I just wanted to type Pete Kugler’s name and feel a warm rush of nostalgia.
And to the credit of Jed York and Shanahan and Lynch, the mantra of striving for Bowls has been their style of business the last several seasons. Trade for Trent Williams. Trade for Christian McCaffrey. Trade for Emmanuel Sanders. Trade for Chase Young. Trade for Charles Omenihu. Trade for Randy Gregory. Heck, you can even include trading for Jimmy Garoppolo at the 2018 trade deadline, when the Lynch-Shanahan Era was only beginning. That felt great, baby.
But 2025 is different for a couple of reasons.
One, the entire season started with a bloodletting in March, and indications from brass that a “reset” was underway. That was John Lynch’s word, not mine.
Two, whatever lightning the 2025 49ers could catch in a bottle escaped when Brock Purdy got hurt . . . and then when Nick Bosa was lost for the season . . . and then when Fred Warner was lost for the season . . . and heck, I’ll even throw in workmanlike rookie Mykel Williams’ season-ending injury as a season-changer.
So, to recap: Declarations of a reset + savagely critical injuries to Bosa and Warner = No moves at the trade deadline.
As I said on the radio today — and YouTube and Twitch and Twitter — we have a new, post-trade deadline slogan: In The Mix For Twenty-Six.
Put the slogan on the t-shirts next to “Roaring Back”, for those who remember Pete Kugler and Candlestick.
That’s it. The 49ers were willing to make some moves, sure. The trade for Keion White was a Lynch-like trade deadline move — a game-ready player for a reasonable cost — but came last week. Perhaps we can be generous and see the Keion White acquisition as the trade deadline move of 2025, but let’s be honest: Lynch traded for Keion White more out of necessity for bodies than he did for any run at history. When Kyle Shanahan was asked before the New York Giants game what Keion White could do for the team, Shanahan’s immediate response was that Keion White was healthy enough to play.
So, yes, credit for the Keion White move. To a point.
And to be generous, the trade of a fifth-rounder for Bryce Huff was a win-now move. So was the trade of a sixth-rounder for Brian Robinson. If Lynch wanted to argue that he made moves to help win in 2025, he has a case.
He can then say that the Bosa and Warner injuries were crippling acts of fate from a cruel football god, and he’d have a case.
Doesn’t mean hardcore fans want to hear it.
I was on the record this morning at being disappointed in Lynch for not making a move. The 49ers had a fourth-rounder and even a seventh-rounder in 2026 they could have dealt for a productive player. I wasn’t necessarily into selling next spring’s first- or second-rounder, given the 49ers needs to ramp up their offensive line sooner rather than later.
The 49ers’ 6-3 start changed things, in my view. The Niners are now squarely in the mix, and if they beat the Rams Sunday at Levi’s, they’ll be in great shape to make a run at an NFC West title. You’ve done the work to get to 6-3, why not keep pushing?
But I suppose the Jock Blog should accept that sometimes you have to eat your vegetables and go to bed early. That sometimes being ‘In The Mix for Twenty-Six’ is your reality.
The 49ers have sort of told us this all calendar year. It’s finally time to accept it.
