The San Francisco 49ers are sitting at 5-0, and that kind of start usually puts a front office on alert. Injuries have already made this roster feel a little thinner than the record suggests, so it would not be a shock if general manager John Lynch looked to add help before the trade deadline settles in.
George Kittle is already thinking along those lines. According to the piece, the tight end has been nudging Lynch about potential additions, with Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Khalil Mack at the top of his wish list. But that idea may be dead before it ever really had a chance.
NFL Insider Tom Pelissero reported that the Chargers, even at 0-5, do not plan to become sellers in November and still believe they can turn their season around. That stance leaves the 49ers with little realistic shot at landing Mack, at least for now.
It is a frustrating outcome for San Francisco, especially with Los Angeles stuck in a miserable stretch that started after its Week 1 loss to the lowly Arizona Cardinals. Since then, the Chargers have been buried by injuries, uneven play and bad decisions, yet the front office is still refusing to wave the white flag.
That leaves the 49ers with another problem to solve. Mack is 35 and no longer in his prime, but he fits the kind of player this roster leans on: experienced, sturdy and able to get up to speed fast. The article points to Mike Evans, a 33-year-old future Hall of Famer, as the type of veteran whose presence has helped hold things together amid injuries elsewhere.
The point is not that San Francisco needs a blockbuster. It needs reliable depth, especially on defense, and a veteran in the trenches would go a long way.
Mack would have checked that box. Since that path appears closed, the 49ers will have to keep looking.
Kittle’s instinct was not far off. The need is real, even if the Chargers have made his preferred solution nearly impossible.
In Other News...
Shanahan Just Made Monday Night About More Than Beating Washington
Kyle Shanahans relationship with Dan Quinn goes back to their Atlanta days, when Shanahan served as offensive coordinator under Quinn in 2015 and 2016. As the 49ers prepare to visit Washington on Monday night, Shanahan said the biggest lessons from that stretch went beyond the playbook, with Quinn putting real weight on how a team talks to one another and builds its identity.
That perspective adds another layer to a matchup that already looks lopsided on paper, with San Francisco leading the NFL in point differential and Washington sitting at 1-3-1. It is also a reunion with a coach Shanahan knows well, only now Quinn is guiding the Commanders, which gives this one a little more history than your average cross-country trip. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Get An Early Edge As Commanders Backfield Suddenly Thins
The 49ers got an early break in the lead-up to their meeting with Washington, as the Commanders backfield took a hit before the matchup even arrived. Jacory Croskey-Merritt, the rookie who has given Washington a useful spark this season with 239 rushing yards and two touchdowns, has been ruled out because of a groin injury, trimming one of the more intriguing pieces of the Commanders run game.
Washington still has options, of course, with Rachaad White and Austin Ekeler expected to carry more of the load. The bigger question now is how the Commanders fill out the rest of that group for game day, and whether the added uncertainty forces them to shuffle more than they would like before facing a 49ers defense that will already be focused on controlling the line of scrimmage. [Read more 🡒]
Renardo Green Is Giving The 49ers Defense Something It Needed
Renardo Green has become one of the more encouraging developments for the 49ers defense this season, giving San Francisco a young corner who is starting to look much more comfortable in Raheem Morris system. His growth has shown up in the numbers, too, with Green standing out among the teams cornerbacks in passes defended and ball hawk rate, a sign that he is not just hanging around plays but consistently finding ways to affect them.
The progress has not come out of nowhere, either. Kyle Shanahan pointed to the work Green did before the offseason program even got rolling as a major reason for the jump, and it is the kind of behind-the-scenes preparation that tends to show up once the games start counting. For a defense that always values playmaking on the back end, Green is starting to provide exactly the sort of presence that can change the way opponents test San Francisco. [Read more 🡒]