The trade deadline is just hours away, and the San Francisco 49ers find themselves with a surplus of running backs following the acquisition of Christian McCaffrey. Last week, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that the 49ers are "willing to listen" to offers for Jeff Wilson Jr. and have even fielded calls from interested teams.
Shanahan joined KNBR on Tuesday morning and was asked about his group of running backs.
"Yeah, we do have a lot of running backs, which I don't think is ever a problem, especially [when] we've had all these guys get hurt throughout this year," Shanahan said on the Murph & Mac show. "It's nice hopefully getting Elijah back here after the bye, which I know there's a chance. If it isn't after the bye, I think it will be very quickly after that game.
"And then finally getting Ty [Davis-Price] healthy here these last two weeks. Then Christian came on board. So yeah, we do have a number of guys, but by no means are we just trying to get rid of one. I mean, we love Jeff Wilson, and I would hate to lose him.
"You always listen to stuff if you think it can help your team, and it's a great situation for him, but that stuff rarely happens."
Shanahan isn't anticipating anything happening before the trade deadline. However, as he did during his weekly day-after-the-game conference call on Monday, the coach isn't counting anything out.
"You never know," Shanahan said. "Those guys are talking to people all the time, but I'd be surprised if anything happened, but I'm not going to totally rule it out either. So I basically just gave you every answer possible, but that is how it is. I wouldn't hold our breath for anything, but [general manager John Lynch] is in discussions all the time."
Update: The 49ers traded Wilson to the Miami Dolphins for a fifth-round draft pick. Click here to read about the trade.
Odell Beckham Jr.
One player the 49ers could acquire at any time, should they seek to add another receiver, is Odell Beckham Jr.
ESPN's Adam Schefter made headlines on Monday when he called a Beckham-49ers marriage "an intriguing match." Shanahan is free to discuss Beckham because he is a free agent and not currently tied to any NFL roster. The coach was asked about his thoughts on potentially adding the star receiver.
"We're open to discussions with everybody," Shanahan shared. "We look into everything. You don't have to worry about the trade deadline with him because he's out there and he's available. I've always been a fan of Odell, like I feel like most people are. I mean, he's that good of a player, but I'm definitely very happy with our receiver group right now and really love the guys that we have."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.
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