The Buccaneers’ edge room looks a lot different after an offseason overhaul, and that shift has pushed Chris Braswell into a tricky spot.
Tampa Bay added Al-Quadin Muhammad after his 11-sack season with the Detroit Lions in 2025, then followed that up by drafting Rueben Bain Jr., who led college football in pressures last season. With that kind of new competition on the outside, Braswell - a former second-round pick - suddenly looks like a player who could be squeezed out.
That’s where San Francisco comes in. The 49ers finished last in the NFL with just 20 sacks last season, one of only two teams to stay under 30.
By comparison, the Buccaneers finished with 37. And the problem in San Francisco hasn’t gotten any smaller: both Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams are coming off torn ACLs suffered last season, while third-round pick Romello Height has been sidelined in training camp because of an elbow issue.
For a team with Super Bowl aspirations, that kind of pass-rush shortage is hard to ignore.
Braswell fits as a possible cheap swing. He’s only 24, but his first two seasons in Tampa Bay have not produced the kind of return the Bucs wanted. He has just 2.5 sacks in his career, and with the Buccaneers deepening their outside linebacker group, his path to a roster spot in 2026 looks shaky.
Still, the upside is easy to see. Braswell led the SEC in pressures in 2023, and NFL Draft expert Dane Brugler described him as a high-effort, aggressive player with starting potential.
That makes him the kind of move the 49ers could consider without paying much. A seventh-round pick or even a late-round pick swap would likely be enough to get a deal done.
Braswell isn’t the type to fix San Francisco’s pass rush by himself, and nobody should expect him to do that. But when a team has been that poor at getting after quarterbacks, a low-cost gamble on a young player with some juice makes sense.
He could also stand to benefit from being around Nick Bosa and from playing under defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, the former Buccaneers head coach.
For Tampa Bay, the appeal is straightforward too: if Braswell is blocked from making an impact, the Bucs could at least turn a former second-round pick into something before moving on. A trade would give him a fresh start and give San Francisco another young body at its biggest need.
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