ESPN insider Adam Schefter joined KNBR on Thursday and said he couldn't envision the San Francisco 49ers aggressively pursuing a trade to replace one of their temporarily injured players, cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon (foot sprain) or tackle Joe Staley (fractured fibula). He believes good teams are proactive and not reactive, which means the 49ers feel replacements are already on the roster.
It sounds like John Lynch agrees with that assessment.
The 49ers general manager took his turn on KNBR during his biweekly Friday-morning interview and explained why his team isn't willing to risk the future for short-term fixes now.
"You're always developing players," Lynch said during the "Murph and Mac" show. "Emmanuel Moseley, Jason Verrett, (and) D.J. Reed are guys that we're going to rely upon."
Lynch expressed confidence in Moseley and Reed, and acknowledged that Verrett's 49ers debut was far from perfect.
"I think he was very frustrated," Lynch shared. "But it's the first time he's played football in a long time. He came out of the game a little nicked up, so we'll see where he is health-wise."
As soon as players like tackle Trent Williams of Washington and cornerback Jalen Ramsey of Jacksonville were reportedly on the trade market, the 49ers, who have injuries at both positions now, were immediately noted by writers and analysts as a potential landing spot for one or the other.
Lynch offered his view on such opportunities.
"You look at those opportunities," Lynch said. "There are some unique ones. Now, I think, sometimes though, I think we're always assuming that people are available. That's not always the case. I mean, just because they're out there and not playing with their current team, doesn't mean they're always available. So we look into these things. We often make calls on these things."
The 49ers have a long-term goal in sight. That has been the case since Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan signed six-year contracts in 2017. They wanted the time to rebuild the roster the right way; the way they felt would result in something sustainable for a long time and not just a quick fix to bring short-term success.
"We obviously came in here with a plan of having success, but having it be sustained success," Lynch continued. "So, is this going to hamstring our operation moving forward? We look at all these things, and believe me, we sense that this team has something special to them."
The 49ers currently sit at 3-0, the team's best start since 1998. Lynch knows this team has the potential to do some things this year despite many analysts predicting otherwise before the season.
That doesn't necessarily mean being reactive before the other players on the roster have a chance to prove themselves.
"It's very early in the year but anything we can do to improve, we're going to be aggressive in trying to do so, so long as it's not mortgaging the future, and just going to give us short-term success, and then hurt us in the future," Lynch added.
Lynch and Shanahan feel they can continue being successful with the current roster, which has more depth than it ever had during their tenure.
"The good thing is I think we've built a good and deep team, and we're able to weather these things," Lynch said. "And hopefully, the injuries, like to Witherspoon and Staley, some really good players, stop happening at the rate they are. But we do feel good with how we've equipped the team to handle [injuries] better this year."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.
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