John Lynch explains why 49ers trading for Nick Bosa replacement is difficult ask originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Programming note: Watch Matt Maiocco’s full interview with John Lynch on “49ers Game Plan,” airing at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday on NBC Sports Bay Area.
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Calls for a trade clamored promptly from the 49ers fan base after it was announced that star defensive end Nick Bosa would miss the rest of the 2025 NFL season with an ACL injury.
But, replacing someone of Bosa’s stature on San Francisco’s defensive line is easier said than done. On this week’s “49ers Game Plan,” general manager John Lynch explained to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco that there are many factors to completing a successful trade.
“I think first of all, it’s identifying people who might even be an option, and you never know what another team’s thinking,” Lynch said. “So, you have to do a lot of due diligence, you have to make a lot of calls. Some people will even get offended, like, ‘No, we would never move him.’ ”
The NFL regular season is not even a quarter of the way complete. Lynch notes that many teams have little motivation to move away from key players this early into the season.
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“Even the teams who have started slow, they all believe in their heart of hearts, ‘You know what, we’re going to get back in this thing and we’re not there yet,’” Lynch explained.
Both short-term and long-term fit also are key factors when making trade decisions.
“You continue to hone and try to put an eye on who are the guys that can help us and does he play our style,” Lynch said. “Sometimes, it’s do we just have him for this year or is it we might get a player for a couple years.”
Lynch noted Charles Omenihu as an example. The 49ers acquired Omenihu from the Houston Texans during the 2021 NFL season to bolster the defensive line. He played an additional season with San Francisco in 2022, notching 20 tackles and 4.5 sacks in a career-high 17 games played.
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Along with personnel fit, money also is a long-term factor that must be considered.
“It’s financially, does it fit? And anybody we grab this year cuts into what we have available in our free agency spend this offseason,” Lynch said.
“…I think there’s also a component, you got to earn the right — probably talked about more in baseball — do you earn the right to motivate people to go acquire people. So that means we got to keep playing good football so that, ‘hey, this could be the guy who makes a difference,’” Lynch continued.
“And oftentimes, it’s just another add. Again, anybody on that trade market, you’re not replacing Nick Bosa. So those are all the things that go into that.”
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In their first game without Bosa, the 49ers lost 26-21 to the Jacksonville Jaguars, their first loss of the season. The star defensive end’s absence was clear as the 49ers failed to register a single quarterback pressure or sack.
