Joe Staley is a remnant of an earlier 49ers era. The veteran left tackle was a key member of an offensive line that was one of the NFL’s best when Jim Harbaugh was turning San Francisco into an NFC power.
Staley — a perennial Pro Bowler and a past All-Pro pick at left tackle — is the only one of the five members of that line still with the team. Guards Mike Iupati and Alex Boone, center Jonathan Goodwin and right tackle Anthony Davis are all retired or with other teams.
Now, with the 49ers at 0-7 and in the midst of a rebuilding program under new GM John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan, there have been reports this week that the Niners may be willing to trade Staley as the NFL trading deadline of Oct. 31 approaches.
This week, Shanahan said he doesn’t want Staley, 33, to go anywhere. Yet he and the 49ers are willing to make any move they believe will make the franchise stronger.
“Joe is a guy that I definitely want here and definitely a guy I wouldn’t want to lose by any means,” Shanahan told reporters. “I’m not going to sit here, if anybody called for any one of our players, it’s not like you just hang up the phone.
“If people want to offer the world, you’ve always got to listen. You’ve got to always try to think what’s going to help your team and make your team better. To lose a guy like Joe Staley, that wouldn’t be something I’d be excited about, so that’d have to take a whole lot.”
Paul Gutierrez, who covers the 49ers for ESPN.com, noted the Eagles — whom the 49ers face Sunday in Philadelphia — have just lost standout left tackle Jason Peters and may be willing to make a move for Staley because they are 6-1 and may be a Super Bowl contender.
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In fact, Eagles coach Doug Pederson praised Staley this week as a player who’s been elite at his position and that left tackles are crucial to keeping edge rushers away from the quarterback. So the Eagles certainly admire Staley and know he could help them.
But Gutierrez wrote that trading Staley may be counterproductive for the 49ers’ rebuilding process. Staley’s stability is protection for rookie quarterback C.J. Beathard as he gets playing time this season and would be important next year as an aid to attracting a veteran quarterback such as Kirk Cousins or Jimmy Garoppolo if the 49ers decide to go that direction, Gutierrez wrote.
Plus, as Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, the 49ers still have plenty of salary-cap space to work with, so Staley's salary of $4.8 million for each of the next two seasons is affordable and actually team-friendly. So there’s no reason from a money standpoint to get rid of him.
Sunday’s game between the 49ers and Eagles is set to kick off at 10 a.m. Sunday.
