49ers film room: Breaking down Kyle Shanahan’s best red-zone weapons

4. Vance McDonald

Hold on a second — I thought tight end Vance McDonald is going to get cut?

If you’ve read anything about the 49ers’ tight-end logjam, you probably assume McDonald is as good as gone. Yet McDonald is still on the roster, is the incumbent starter, and is the team’s most productive tight end.

I’ve written that it doesn’t make sense for the 49ers to cut McDonald, but it does make some sense to trade him.

Until he’s off the team or officially demoted, McDonald is the 49ers’ top tight end — and with that role comes a plethora of red-zone targets:

Shanahan often lines his tight ends up in the slot, where McDonald has excelled in the past: