49ers DeForest Buckner trade reacquisition, Digi Mart USA News: Six years after the 49ers traded DeForest Buckner to the Indianapolis Colts, Kyle Shanahan says getting him back feels “surreal.” San Francisco reacquired Buckner from the Indianapolis Colts on Oct. 27 for a 2027 fourth-round pick and took on the roughly $7.9 million left on his contract.
Speaking on “49ers Game Plan” to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, Shanahan explained when he realized the talks were serious. The interest was not new, he said, but a player like Buckner does not become available until the deadline nears and teams know where they stand.
The timing also mattered on San Francisco’s side. The 49ers lost six of their 10 defensive linemen in the first two weeks of the season, Shanahan said, and the young players who stepped in eased the urgency but not the appeal.
“When a guy like Buck is available, man, it doesn’t matter where you’re at. You always want to add a guy like that,” Shanahan said.
The talks heated up in the last two weeks, he said, especially after Indianapolis moved on from general manager Chris Ballard. A few days before the bye week, Shanahan knew it was close, and even in Atlanta he was told it could get finished when the team got back.
The news came after he left the facility on Tuesday.
“I got a text later that day, and John said, ‘Hey, it should be done as long as physical passes and stuff,'” Shanahan said, referring to general manager John Lynch. “I was at my house with my wife and got to tell her, and we were pumped, so pumped to get Buck back.”
Buckner also wanted the move. He told Colts leadership he wanted to be traded back to San Francisco.
Shanahan said the emotions are much better than in 2020, when the 49ers sent Buckner to the Colts for the No. 13 pick in that year’s NFL Draft. He said it was the first time he had to make a hard business decision in football.
“People don’t understand how hard that was, like getting rid of Buck,” Shanahan said. The 49ers were also facing a salary cap crunch with George Kittle and Deebo Samuel needing deals, and the trade cleared more than $12 million in cap space.
San Francisco drafted Javon Kinlaw with the pick, but injuries followed, and the 49ers declined his fifth-year option.
“We also wanted Buck here for life, and so you look at all that stuff and you’re like, well, how do we do this?” Shanahan said. “It was a decision you don’t want to make, but you almost have to make when you see the big picture stuff, and you never know how it’s going to work out.”
That is why the reunion means more than the benefit to the roster. “It starts with the player.
How good of a player everyone knows he is, but the person was special, and that’s the type of guy you always want in your building,” Shanahan said. “To get him back six years later, and to have a lot of those guys I’m talking about still here, it kind of feels surreal.”
Six years after one of the hardest decisions of his tenure, the 49ers got a chance to undo it for the price of a fourth-round pick.
