Kyle Shanahan reveals thought process behind controversial decision to trade away DeForest Buckner

Life has come full circle for San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.

After the 2019 season concluded, Shanahan told Matt Maiocco on “49ers talk” that trading DeForest Buckner to the Indianapolis Colts that offseason was one of the hardest decisions he’s made as a young coach.

“That was my first time in football, anytime in football that I had to experience, a tough business football decision,” Shanahan said. “Just how things stack up. When I was here in [2017] and [2018], we hadn’t paid anybody. We had a pretty clean slate, which allowed us to build our team the right way.”

“Into that offseason, that was the first time I really was hit with salary cap people, Paraag [Marathe], and John [Lynch], and all those guys were like ‘Hey, here are the people we gotta sign. This is what it looks like over a two year, over a three year,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.”

Shanahan went on to say that at the time, the team was in a position where they had to pay their younger stars, that included George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw, and more, but wanted to keep Buckner with them “for life,” but realized with the salary cap, they wouldn’t be able to.

“Once you see it gets to a certain point, it’s one guy compared to three and stuff like that,” Shanahan said. “It was a decision like you don’t wanna make, but you almost have to make when you see the big picture.”

Prior to his exit from the 49ers, Buckner was a stepping stone in building the foundation of the current 49ers regime.

In his final season wearing a 49ers scarlet red jersey, Buckner had 7.5 sacks and was part of a Super Bowl defense.

The 49ers ended up falling 31-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 54, and Buckner was traded that offseason.

Now seven years later, Buckner is back with San Francisco after they traded for him during the bye week.

On top of the reunion, the 49ers are a potential favorite to win the Super Bowl this season, holding a 6-1 record.

“You never want to lose Buck. But we had such a unique circumstance where we had all five of these guys who are young,” Shanahan said. “So that’s how it happened. To get him back six years later, and to have a lot of those guys I’m talking about still here, it kinda feels surreal.”

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