Report: 49ers & Eagles Discussed Trade For LB Mychal Kendricks, Deal Now Unlikely

Kevin Jones of KNBR reports that the 49ers discussed a potential trade for Eagles LB Mychal Kendricks a month ago. However, a deal is now considered unlikely after the 49ers used a first-round pick on Alabama LB Reuben Foster.

Back in March, Jeff McLane mentioned that the Eagles were asking potential trade partners for at least a fifth-round pick in return for Kendricks. Unfortunately, teams were reportedly offering less because they know it’s likely he’ll be released at some point, according to McLane.

Now that the draft has passed, Philadelphia could hold out until roster cuts to see if a team suffers an injury at linebacker and is willing to part with a future draft pick for Kendricks.

Kendricks, 26, is a former second-round pick of the Eagles back in 2012. He’s entering the third year of his five-year, $29.896 million contract that included $16.4 million guaranteed and stands to make a base salary of $4.85 million for the 2016 season.

According to OverTheCap.com, trading or releasing Kendricks would free up $1.8 million of available cap space while creating $4.8 million in dead money. However, the Eagles could improve those figures to $5 million in cap savings and just $1.6 million in dead money by designating him as a post-June 1 release.

In 2016, Kendricks appeared in 15 games for the Eagles and recorded 32 tackles, no sacks or interceptions, a fumble recovery and a pass defense. According to Pro Football Focus, Kendricks was limited to playing 273 snaps, but was close to an average player based on their ratings.

We’ll have more regarding a potential Kendricks trade as the news is available.