NFL trade deadline 2018: Latest 49ers news, rumors and reports

Move Joe Staley to the Chargers?

Wait, what?

OK, so this is the time of year where anyone can throw out trade ideas hoping they stick to the wall. And maybe that’s what ESPN’s Mark Sando did when he suggested the 49ers move veteran left tackle Joe Staley to the Los Angeles Chargers at this year’s NFL trade deadline.

Before laughing this off as impossible, let’s try to make sense of it.

Sando suggests a third-round draft pick in exchange. Sounds fair for a 34 year old still playing well at this point of his career and signed through 2019. So that’s crossed off. But why would either team do it?

The Chargers’ perspective is pretty easy. Right tackle Joe Barksdale has struggled this year, and adding Staley would allow L.A. to move left tackle Russell Okung over to the right side. And with quarterback Philip Rivers’ window to win a Super Bowl beginning to close — tack on the Chargers’ need to win over the City of Los Angeles — one can see how it makes sense from their perspective.

But why would San Francisco make the move?

If anything, aside from the compensation, it would free up Staley to go win a championship somewhere before he calls it a career. The Chargers are vastly closer to doing so than the Niners at this point.

Still, moving Staley would open up just one more need the 49ers will have this offseason. It would be smarter for San Francisco to table that need until later.

Hey, well done for trying, Mark.