Denver Broncos 3 trade targets with the San Francisco 49ers
The Denver Broncos have made a handful of deals with the San Francisco 49ers in recent years. Could they do it again in the 2022 offseason?
The Denver Broncos have made a number of trades with the San Francisco 49ers in recent years. Most recently, they acquired linebacker Jonas Griffith from the 49ers in a deal right around roster cuts in 2021.
There’s obviously a solid working relationship between the Broncos and 49ers, regardless of whether it’s been John Elway or George Paton pulling the trigger from the general manager’s seat. Both of those guys have made deals with John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan with benefits on both sides.
In the 2022 offseason, don’t be surprised to see these two teams come together on a deal or two again. Here are a few ideas you should keep on the radar.
Denver Broncos trade candidate no. 1: Samson Ebukam, EDGE
The 49ers signed Samson Ebukam to a two-year deal last offseason, and he played a solid reserve/rotational role for them in 2021.
Playing just over 50 percent of the defensive snaps, Ebukam extended his streak to three seasons in a row with 4.5 sacks.
Adding 11 QB hits and five tackles for loss, Ebukam proved his worth as a reserve EDGE player for the 49ers and appeared in all 17 regular season games as well as every postseason game, in which he racked up two more sacks and four more QB hits.
Ebukam’s contributions may have been too valuable for the 49ers to trade for his current price, but he carries an $8.25 million cap charge in 2022 and they can save over $6 million of that by trading him away.
For the Broncos, Ebukam could make plenty of sense given his history with the Los Angeles Rams. He was a fourth-round pick by the Rams in 2017 and is obviously very familiar with many new faces on the coaching staff in Denver, notably defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero even though they didn’t work directly together in LA.
Ebukam could be penciled in as a starter for the Broncos at a very reasonable price while they pursue other EDGE players in the NFL Draft and free agency.