Analysis: Why a trade like Seattle’s bid for Jamal Adams is not in the 49ers’ DNA

A match was lit under the kindling of 49ers social media trade rumors Saturday when star safety Jamal Adams was traded from the New York Jets to the Seattle Seahawks.

ESPN national reporter Jeremy Fowler indicated San Francisco was in the running when he tweeted, “Parties involved believed 49ers, Cowboys were both in” on the Adams trade talks.

Fans, of course, reacted accordingly, wondering how the 49ers could possibly let a player of Adams’ caliber join their division rival. Adams, a first-team All-Pro in 2019, gives Seattle the best strong safety in the league to cover their best player, George Kittle.

Eventually a response came from 49ers general manager, John Lynch, who told NBC Sports Bay Area Monday, on the record, Fowler’s report was wrong.

“Totally inaccurate,” Lynch texted NBC Sports’ Matt Maiocco. “We did not ever make a call about the player.”

Based on recent history, Lynch’s side deserves the benefit of doubt.

Adams was too expensive for 49ers

Lynch wouldn’t be doing himself any favors by lying unprovoked while attaching his name to a quote. Maintaining credibility to other power brokers in the NFL is a big part of a general manager’s job. Lynch knows this — plus he’s been willing to talk about other players the 49ers considered in the past but ultimately didn’t land.

That list includes Khalil Mack, Odell Beckham Jr. and Tom Brady this offseason. Lynch even mentioned calling Washington about left tackle Trent Williams during the middle of last season when Joe Staley and Mike McGlinchey were both out dealing with injuries (the 49ers wound up trading for Williams this spring following Staley’s retirement). Reporters covering the 49ers have joked about wanting to play Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan in poker because they’re easy to read and bad at bluffing.

But getting Adams never made sense for San Francisco to begin with. They wouldn’t have the cap space to maintain their contending roster without a war chest of first-round picks to replace starters they might not be able to pay. They made that clear with the DeForest Buckner trade in March.

The Seahawks traded away first-round picks in 2021 and 2022, a 2021 third-round pick and safety Bradley McDougald, who’s entering the final year of his contract. New York sent a 2022 fourth-round pick to Seattle in the deal.

That’s a big haul for the Jets and a defensible deal for the Seahawks, who have lacked an alpha dog in the secondary since Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Cam Chancellor broke up the “Legion of Boom” with their exits in recent offseasons.

The 49ers in 2020 are thin on assets and heavy on players in need of raises. All while the coronavirus pandemic is expected to bring a huge loss in revenue leading to the salary cap shrinking by some $40 million in 2021.

They’re not in position to trade away multiple first-round picks for a player that’s looking to become one of the highest paid defenders in the league as soon as 2021. With a $175 million salary cap next season, which is expected to be the baseline, the 49ers project to have roughly $5 million in space.

That’s before giving a market-setting deal to Kittle or considering the team’s other looming free agents, such as Sherman and Williams, who are both premium players at high-priced positions.

Adams is under Seahawks control with two years remaining on his rookie contract, though he’s expected to re-up with Seattle before his contract runs out. A deal should be easier to hash out given Seattle has some $17 million more than San Francisco in cap space in 2021 with no players at Kittle or Williams’ level needing new contracts.

49ers not looking to trade multiple big picks

The truth is, the 49ers have only shown a willingness to trade away multiple first-round picks once. It came in their pursuit of Mack before he was traded from the Raiders to the Bears in 2018.

It’s been floated that San Francisco offered the Raiders a better package than Chicago, which sent first-round picks in 2019 and 2020, a 2020 third-round pick and 2019 conditional sixth-round selection. Oakland included a 2020 second-round choice and conditional 2020 fifth.

The 49ers proved better off not making the deal because they landed a similar talent in Nick Bosa with the No. 2 pick in the 2019 draft without having to give him a top-of-the-market contract like the Bears gave Mack (six years, $141 million). It was a franchise-altering development that was only possible because the team went 4-12 in 2018 following the Week 3 ACL tear of Jimmy Garoppolo. Getting Bosa on a rookie contract was a big part of reaching the Super Bowl.

And San Francisco had other opportunities to shell out first-round picks for players like Beckham, defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick or cornerback Jalen Ramsey, but decided to hold tight.

The most valuable draft pick the 49ers have traded for a veteran since Shanahan and Lynch were hired was the 2018 No. 34 overall pick to the New England Patriots for Garoppolo.

Perhaps it’s time to accept it’s not part of the 49ers’ ethos to move on from multiple first-round picks in trades given their limited resources and the amount of talented players they already have to account for.

Because if cap space prevents them from re-signing Kittle, Williams or Sherman, they’d have to rely on the draft to find replacements.

“Every decision we made (this offseason) was also with, how do we help this organization for the future, but (make) it still feel like we’re in a position to be the same team?” Shanahan said after the draft in April. “Those are the things that come into play.”

This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 4:00 AM.