George Kittle apparently already has a trade target in mind for the 49ers.
With San Francisco looking for help off the edge, the tight end floated Los Angeles Chargers pass rusher Khalil Mack to general manager John Lynch, who mentioned the conversation Friday, Oct. 16, on KNBR. NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco relayed that “49ers GM John Lynch said George Kittle asked him Thursday about the possibility of acquiring veteran edge Khalil Mack, who has three sacks for the 0-5 Chargers.”
Lynch wouldn’t get into the weeds on any possible deal for the former Defensive Player of the Year, but he did say the 49ers are doing what every team does as the Nov. 10 trade deadline draws closer.
“Just because the flow of the trade deadline is approaching, yes. That’s our job to do that, to talk with our counterparts around the league. We receive calls, we make calls, just to see where the market is at,” Lynch told KNBR, per Maiocco.
From the Chargers’ side, the case for moving Mack is easy to see. They’re 0-5, and no team in NFL history has reached the playoffs after starting that way.
Mack is on a one-year deal, and he also has thought about retiring after this season after considering hanging it up this past offseason. If Los Angeles is headed nowhere, flipping him for draft capital before he walks away for nothing makes plenty of sense.
There should be interest, too. Edge rusher is one of the league’s premium spots, and Mack still looks like a real difference-maker with three sacks through five games. He has also said publicly that he still has “total faith” in the Chargers, but if the losses keep piling up, a move would give him a fresh start and a shot at a Super Bowl with a team like the 5-0 49ers.
And San Francisco has reasons to keep shopping. The Niners have 11 sacks in five games, which is respectable but not exactly dominant.
Nick Bosa could be back in the next few weeks, but his recent injury history makes extra help valuable. Adding Mack would give the 49ers more punch on the edge and deepen a defense that is already playing at a high level.
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It is still the sort of speculation that lives more in talk-show territory than in actual transaction talk, but it says a lot about how unsettled both situations feel right now. Any move would face a major hurdle beyond the football fit, and for Chargers supporters, the whole exercise is less about realism than the uncomfortable reminder that even a franchise quarterback can wind up at the center of rumor season when things around him start to wobble. [Read more 🡒]