SF 49ers: 3 trade targets on Jaguars as they hold fire sale
By Peter Panacy
The SF 49ers should explore taking advantage of the Jaguars’ recent offloading of players, potentially engineering trade packages where possible.
The SF 49ers are in a bit of a sticky situation heading into 2020 and eventually 2021, both in terms of relatively limited NFL Draft resources next year and what the team’s situation will be with the 2021 salary cap potentially dropping as low as $175 million.
It gets more complex when considering the Niners could lose a number of high-profile pending free agents next year — cornerback Richard Sherman, safety Jaquiski Tartt, offensive tackle Trent Williams, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, cornerback K’Waun Williams, to name a few — yet are already committed to roughly $174 million in financial obligations without those pending free agents inked for next season.
Tack on the global pandemic and numerous NCAA conferences either canceling or postponing their 2020 campaigns, and the 2021 draft could be awfully challenging.
One could make the argument draft picks are worth less now than they’d otherwise be in non-pandemic years, however, and there’s a much more understandable context across the country from San Francisco.
The Jacksonville Jaguars sure appear to be going through a “fire sale” of sorts, jettisoning a number of players like defensive tackle Yannick Ngakoue in a trade to the Minnesota Vikings. Shortly thereafter, the Jags waived their top pick from the 2017 NFL Draft, running back Leonard Fournette, in a move referred to as “trying to clean up the place.”
What the Jaguars’ intentions are, perhaps taking for Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence in the 2021 draft, aren’t totally known. And it’s unclear just how many Jacksonville players could potentially be on the trade block.
But with the SF 49ers’ Super Bowl window open now and the 2021 season rife with unknowns and X-factors, it surely wouldn’t hurt if Niners general manager John Lynch explored trade possibilities for these three Jaguars players if they’re on the block.