49ers To Shop WR Marquise Goodwin?

Marquise Goodwin has struggled to replicate his 2017 numbers, and that could lead to a ticket out of San Francisco. When asked if the team could trade the wideout, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan didn’t play coy.

“We could, yeah,” Shanahan told Matt Barrows of The Athletic.

“You also don’t get rid of valuable people just for nothing. So we’ll have him come back and compete and if that doesn’t work out we could always possibly trade him. There are lots of things that are open. But I don’t know that exact answer yet.”

After falling out of favor in Buffalo, the former third-rounder had a breakout campaign in 2017. During his first season in San Francisco, Goodwin set career-highs across the board with 56 receptions for 962 receiving yards in 16 starts. He inked a three-year extension prior to the 2018 season, and the wideout hasn’t been able to hold up his side of the bargain. Goodwin was limited to 395 receiving yards in 2018 before getting phased out of the offense in 2019. He finished last season with 12 receptions for 186 yards and one score in nine games before landing on the injured reserve.

As Barrows notes, Goodwin is set to count for $4.9MM against the cap next season, a big ask for such limited production. Plus, the team will look to re-sign Emmanuel Sanders, and they’re hoping for big things from both Deebo Samuel and Dante Pettis. Despite the significant cap hit, the team won’t simply cut Goodwin.

“We wouldn’t release Marquise. He’s too valuable,” Shanahan said. “I know he fell out of the rotation last year, then he had an injury (and) wanted to go on IR so he could get it cleaned up. I think it is right now. I haven’t seen him for a while. Marquise is a guy who can play in this league. If he’s on this team, he’s going to be competing with that group and, if not, I feel pretty confident another team would want him.”