Make a Move or Ride it Out? The 49ers have a Sophie's Choice.
Losing one of your best players on the team could be manageable for a while, but losing two of them on the same side of the field is a different story. Defensive end Nick Bosa tore his ACL against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 3 and linebacker Fred Warner dislocated and broke his ankle against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week in the first quarter. There are a lot of mixed opinions on if the San Francisco 49ers should go ahead and trade for two players to replace the ones they lost with their current 4-2 record or ride out the rest of the season.
The team has announced that Tatum Bethune will be starting linebacker in place of Warner for the rest of the season, but we’ll see how long that plays out. Meanwhile the team has relied more on rookie Mykel Williams in place of Nick Bosa, and have given Bryce Huff more snaps as well.
The 49ers currently have eight draft picks with three of them being in the 4th round. There was some speculations that the team will go after Cincinnati Bengals’ edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, but he got hit with a hip injury against the Green Bay Packers. Bradley Chubb from the Miami Dolphins or Jermaine Johnson could be options as well. As far as the linebacker side, they could look at Quincy Williams from the New York Jets or Christian Harris from the Houston Texans.
As much as I would love to see this team make a splash trade, I think they will hold tight to their draft picks and look for free agency next year. This team still has a lot of problems on both sides of the ball that I believe they just want to see how far they are able to go this year. Warner and Bosa will be healthy by the beginning of 2026 and with the rookies getting so many reps on the field this year, I think they’ll be more prepared to take on better teams later than they currently are now.
Like Robert Saleh said before their Week 1 game against the Seattle Seahawks, “Put your seatbelt on and enjoy the ride.”