49ers have one glaring need to address at NFL trade deadline

The NFL trade deadline is rapidly approaching and the San Francisco 49ers have a handful of positions they could address via the trade market. However, there’s one clear need they should aim to cross off first.

Before the trade deadline passes on November 5 at 1:00pm Pacific Time, the 49ers should add at least one additional edge rusher. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they added multiple the way they did last year when they acquired Randy Gregory from the Broncos and Chase Young from the Commanders.

There are arguments to be made that linebacker is a position of need. Safety could become an issue, and offensive line help is something every team needs.

An injury could change the entire calculus at the deadline for the 49ers, but going into Week 7 it’s clear that defensive end help is at the top of their list of needs.

This season the 49ers have registered only 13.0 sacks. Only 7.0 of those have come from defensive ends, including 3.0 from Nick Bosa, 2.0 from Leonard Floyd and 2.0 from Sam Okuayinonu. But even those sack totals are a little misleading.

Bosa has racked up 35 pressures and has a 20.2 percent pass rush win rate per Pro Football Focus. That’s the seventh-highest rate in the NFL among players with at least 100 pass rush snaps.

Floyd has accounted for 20 pressures, but his win rate is just 10.1 percent. Okuayinonu has nine pressures and a 14.8 percent pass rush win rate.

Yetur Gross-Matos wasn’t having a ton of success due in part to a knee injury that wound up landing him on IR. He had just five pressures and a paltry 10.4 percent win rate.

Robert Beal has yet to register a pressure in 22 pass rush reps.

It’s not a deep group for a club that built a defense where the pass rush is supposed to be the tip of the spear. They’ve had to make some adjustments with a higher blitz rate, and some strong play in the secondary has made up at times for a lack of pass rush. That unit cannot stay as presently assembled though or eventually the wheels are going to fall off.

Perhaps the 49ers make multiple additions. Perhaps they get hyper aggressive and go after a big name that comes available as teams fall further out of the playoff hunt. Either way, they need to make a trade to bolster their DE depth by the trade deadline or they may see their season come to an end sooner than they’re expecting.