The 2025 season will be an interesting one for the San Francisco 49ers, and with the NFL Draft approaching, their offseason strategy could still take several forms.
After an exodus of talented players in free agency, the 49ers have a decent number of holes to fill. That doesn’t mean they can’t rebound and become contenders after their poor result in 2024, but they do need to start finding some replacements if that is the plan.
One example: the 49ers cut defensive end Leonard Floyd coming off a solid season to save minimal cap space, and weren’t able to find a replacement in free agency. Now, they could either look for an edge-rusher in the draft, or go out and seek a trade.
If it’s the latter, one NFL writer believes a former top-five draft pick could be an option.
On Wednesday, Joe Simile of Athlon discussed New York Giants edge-rusher and former fifth overall draft pick Kayvon Thibodeaux as a trade candidate for the 49ers heading into the final year of his rookie contract.
“Thibodeaux is a year removed from an 11.5-sack campaign, and while he missed some time in 2024, he still totaled 5.5 sacks in 12 games for the Giants while tallying a career-high 17 quarterback hits,” Simile wrote.
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“Thibodeaux would be entering the fourth year of his rookie contract, and would be additionally motivated to earn as lucrative of an extension as possible, and a trade could add more fuel to that fire.”
The 24-year-old Thibodeaux may not quite have lived up to his All-Pro potential so far, but that’s all the more reason for the 49ers to take a chance on him if he’s available.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that the Giants will trade him in the first place. And if San Francisco were to do the deal and miss the playoffs, they’d be blasted in hindsight for giving up assets for a player entering free agency.
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