49ers whiffed by not trading for Za'Darius Smith by NFL deadline

The 49ers could have had Za'Darius Smith for next to nothing at the NFL trade deadline, but they opted to let an NFC rival contender grab him instead.

The San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions had one major thing in common leading up to the 2024 NFL trade deadline.

Both teams needed pass-rushing help.

Detroit might be a bit more needy, given it lost star edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson to a season-ending injury after he was turning in a potential Defensive Player of the Year campaign. But the Niners, aside from defensive end Nick Bosa, haven't been getting much production off the edge and have relied almost entirely upon a three-man rotation here, the other two being Leonard Floyd and the upstart Sam Okuayinonu.

With the Cleveland Browns having something of a fire sale at the deadline, one might think a veteran pass-rusher on the trade block would be a target for general manager John Lynch, who is no stranger to deadline-day deals and was rumored to be shopping for defensive linemen.

Veteran defensive end Za'Darius Smith seemed to be the perfect target for both NFC contenders.

Unfortunately for San Francisco, the Lions pulled off the trade for Smith first, leaving the 49ers to settle for a seldom-discussed rotational lineman, Khalil Davis.

A loss for the Niners here.

49ers could have outbid Lions for Za'Darius Smith

Despite being on the wrong side of 30 years old, Smith could have been the perfect complement to Bosa, rotating with Floyd but still allowing Okuayinonu a role while guarding against fellow edge Yetur Gross-Matos from returning from a season-long knee injury too soon.

For starters, Smith played in a similar defensive alignment in Cleveland, the wide-9 under coordinator Jim Schwartz, which isn't unlike what San Francisco deploys under D-line coach Kris Kocurek.

Smith has been a pressure-generating machine, too, notching 44 quarterback hits combined between 2022 and 2023 while boasting five sacks for the Browns defense over nine games prior to being traded.

All it took for Detroit to take on the veteran pass-rusher was a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2026 exchange of sixth- and seventh-round picks.

Even more painful, the Lions will only have to pay Smith $605,000 for the remainder of the season, according to Over the Cap, and his total cap hit in each of the following two seasons doesn't exceed $6 million in either.

That's affordable, even for a B-level pass-rusher. And Smith still has A-type production.

The 49ers, meanwhile, spent a seventh-round pick in 2026 for Davis. While that helps solve interior D-line issues, it failed to acknowledge the outside pass rush, which remains thin with Gross-Matos still out and the sack numbers not showing up behind Bosa.

For a Niners team eager to win now within its Super Bowl window, not landing Smith while letting him go to another top NFC contender is a pretty big loss.

Read more from Niner Noise