49ers Confirm They’ve Discussed Trades Involving TE Vance McDonald

A few days ago, Michael Lombardi of TheRinger reported that the 49ers have made TE Vance McDonald available for trade, despite the fact that they just signed him to an extension.

Both 49ers GM John Lynch and HC Kyle Shanahan confirmed that they’ve fielded trade offers for McDonald.

“I think that’s the reality of new regimes coming in,” Lynch said, via the Sacramento Bee. “That’s not to say he can’t fit into our scheme. Frankly, we received some interest from some other people, and then we did explore some options throughout the league with Vance.”

Shanahan mentioned that he called McDonald Friday about the situation and said there are other players they’ve discussed moving.

“We’re all good,” Shanahan said. “We’re going to talk in person (Monday). We took over a 2-14 team. We need to get better in every aspect, and we’re going to try to in every aspect. It wasn’t just Vance. … We (talked about) Vance the most because a lot of people were interested in Vance. But we’re ready to do that with anybody. We’re going to try to improve our team in any way possible because we have a lot of work to do.”

When the 49ers signed McDonald to an extension last year, many wondered why they would allow Trent Baalke to sign a player to an extension when his future with the team was in doubt.

Now that the 49ers have a new regime in place, it appears as though they’re willing to move on if there’s a deal to be made.

McDonald, 26, is a former second-round pick of the 49ers back in 2013. He was in the final year of his four-year, $3.599 million contract when the 49ers signed him to a new five-year, $35 million extension that includes $16 million guaranteed in December.

Unfortunately, San Francisco placed him on injured reserve last year just a few days later.

In 2016, McDonald appeared in 11 games and caught 24 passes for 391 yards receiving and four touchdowns. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 24 tight end out of 63 qualifying players.

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