DEFOREST BUCKNER
The 49ers had the right idea in 2020. Coming off the team’s most prodigious season of the 21st century, and with a roster stocked with rising talent, veteran leadership, and quality depth, San Francisco’s forthright strategy to stay the course that had been so shrewdly and meticulously mapped over the previous three years by general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan seemed the most logical approach to nurture a budding powerhouse. But even the most brilliant ideas and well-charted plans don’t always work out. Particularly when a worldwide pandemic gets in the way and many other things go wrong as well. It would have been difficult to foresee all the adversity the 49ers would ultimately face during the past season, and even if they knew what was coming, what else could they have done about it? Here, The Niner Report revisits the significant moves of the offseason — and other transactions the 49ers felt compelled to make while their season was falling apart — and examines how they worked out for the team during the NFL’s tumultuous 2020 season of COVID-19.
Casting away a centerpiece
The logic behind the stunning March 18 trade of defensive lineman DeForest Buckner to Indianapolis for the Colts’ No. 13 overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft certainly was sound for a variety of reasons.
Buckner was about to land a massive contract extension that could considerably impact the team’s salary-cap flexibility and ability to retain other young stars in upcoming years. The 49ers needed to re-sign other key players from their 2019 Super Bowl team that were about to hit free agency, and with that high first-round pick received from the Colts, the 49ers could find a costeffective replacement for Buckner that would be tied to a rookie contract until the middle of this decade.
This story is from the February/March 2021 edition of Niner Report.
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This story is from the February/March 2021 edition of Niner Report.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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In the weeks that follow after you read this — and perhaps sometime even sooner than that — Kyle Shanahan and the rest of the 49ers organization will make a titanic decision that will have present, future and perhaps even everlasting implications for the franchise. It will chart the course for the team’s pivotal 2021 season while determining whether San Francisco really does have the juice to return to powerhouse status and again be considered a legitimate contender to get back to the Super Bowl.
TOP 10 Linebacker seasons
Fred Warner vaulted to stardom with a spectacular 2020 season — and the 49ers rewarded him this summer with a $95.225 million deal that makes him the highest-paid inside linebacker in NFL history. By today’s standards, Warner’s performance last year was worth the money as he posted an Approximate Value of 19 — matching the highest score ever recorded by a San Francisco defender according to a Pro Football Reference formula that puts a single number on each player-season across all positions since 1960. Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman (twice) also had seasons with an AV of 19 as they dominate this list of the greatest individual seasons by a linebacker in 49ers history.
