As the Cowboys make a change to their defense, they needed to tweak the personnel to fit the adjusted front. That effort has included a trade that sent defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to San Francisco.
It wasn’t easy, for the player or his head coach, Brian Schottenheimer.
“Anytime you go through a scheme change, there’s going to be adjustments where you move on from an incredible person, an incredible leader in Osa,” Schottenheimer said this week at the NFL’s annual meeting in Arizona. “That was one of the hard ones. I’m happy to share with you guys: I wept, we both wept on the phone together. It was hard. That’s the nature of the business, and I’m thrilled that he’s going to a place that is a great fit for him.”
This is one of the realities that get overlooked by media who view trades as all-caps, exclamation point-worthy proclamations. For every goofy “TRADE!” tweet we see, there’s a human being who may not be thrilled about the sudden change in his overall work and life circumstances.
Odighizuwa, who has spent five years with the Cowboys, had no reason to want to leave. Especially with no state income taxes in Texas and a whopping 13.3 percent in California.
But that’s one of the realities of playing in the NFL. Absent a no-trade clause, any player can be traded. Whether he wants to be or not.
Every player is a piece in a football machine that will eventually replace each of them with a new part. And “the best interests of the team” always control those decisions.
The best interests of the player are secondary, at best. For most teams, the best interests of the player don’t even matter.
Especially when the team decides it’s ready to move on from the player.
49ers Clips
Linebacker Dre Greenlaw’s move to Denver last year did not work out as planned.
Greenlaw signed a three-year deal with the Broncos, but missed the first six games of the season with a quad injury and then was suspended for the eighth because of an altercation with referee Brad Allen. Greenlaw dealt with a hamstring injury near the end of the year and was released in March after playing 10 total games with the AFC West club.
During an appearance on The Set podcast with former NFL player Terron Armstead, Greenlaw shared why he believes things didn’t work out with the Broncos.
“Going from a 4-3 to a 3-4 was a huge difference, especially not being able to practice in the defense,” Greenlaw said. “It’s just kinda like, for me, the fact that I’m not healthy, I don’t feel that twitch or that gear that I felt like I need to have, but, obviously, I’m out here trying to do everything I can to be on the field. It makes it tough when you pay a guy $11 mil and he’s only on the field 50 percent of the time. It made it tough for me. It made it to the point where it kind of makes you not happy. Now I’ve got to slowly come in and take reps from somebody else — the linebackers were playing really, really good at the time, so now I’ve gotta come in I’m taking reps from this guy. And now it’s like, OK, we’re splitting reps, how are we going to do it? One week it’s this, one week it’s that, and it’s like, I’ve never been in that position before for one and, for two, yeah, I just wasn’t happy. That’s really what it boiled down to at the end of the day.”
Greenlaw said he was thankful for the opportunity to play for Sean Payton in Denver and for the way he was accepted by the organization, but added that “everything works out for a reason” and that he’s excited to be back with the 49ers after signing a one-year deal with his first team in the wake of his release.
There’s one way to keep 49ers fans from taking over SoFi Stadium during a “road” game against the Rams.
Move it to Melbourne.
In a joint interview with Packers coach Matt LaFleur, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said he knows “for a fact” that the Rams pushed to have their home game against the 49ers be the game that was sent from La La Land to the Land Down Under.
“I’m pretty sure the Rams lobbied for that game,” LaFleur said when the subject of the Australia game came up.
“I know for a fact they did,” Shanahan said. “That’s what’s so bothersome.”
Shanahan joked (we think) that he wants the 49ers’ “home” game in Mexico to have the Rams as the visiting team.
Still, Shanahan understands why the Rams would want to avoid seeing a home game against the 49ers become a home game for the 49ers. (The Chargers were surely thinking about that last year, when a potential Chiefs takeover of SoFi Stadium was moved to Brazil.)
“That would suck to have to do silent cadence and to have our home game at their stadium,” Shanahan said. “So I get their ambitions, but they were rewarded that. So I’m just hoping we can get our request, too. I’d love them to come to Mexico.”
Having both ends of a home-and-home series played on foreign soil would be unprecedented, to say the least. And it would be an interesting tweak, if it ever happens.
For now, we’ll all settle for the interesting reality that the Rams found a way to tweak the 49ers by successfully persuading the NFL to export what would have been another 49ers home game.
Broncos coach Sean Payton recently coached one of the teams of current and former NFL players (with a stray YouTuber or two) against the U.S. men’s national flag football team.
It didn’t go well for the non-flag players.
“Well, that was humbling,” Payton said Tuesday of the experience during the AFC coaches’ breakfast. “You remember the Home Alone series, and Macaulay Culkin was inside [the house]. Macaulay Culkin was the international team, and I felt like [Kyle Shanahan and I] were the two guys outside getting hit in the head with the iron and tripping over the garden hose. It’s an entirely different game.”
Payton was likely Harry, which would mean Shanahan was Marv.
“Listen, it was kind of cool to be around those guys,” Payton said. “That was a big deal. I think when this first was announced, there was this feeling there would be 10 NFL players on [the 2028 U.S. men’s Olympic] roster, and I’ll be surprised if there’s one. I just think we have plenty of players that can acclimate, but it’s going to take a month or two. Then if you’re one of those players, do you have that month or two? If you’re training for that, you’re not training for. . . .”
In the transcript supplied by the Broncos, Payton didn’t finish the thought. But it’s obvious — if you’re training for flag football, you’re not training for tackle football.
That’s the ultimate question. Will tackle football players make the commitment necessary to train for flag football, at the risk of undermining their preparation for the version of the game that pays the bills?
Jaguars head coach Liam Coen had a beef with Robert Saleh when Jacksonville faced the 49ers last season, but things appear to have calmed down ahead of Saleh’s first season as the Titans’ head coach.
Saleh said that Coen and the Jaguars had “a really advanced signal stealing-type system” that they deployed to their advantage ahead of a September game and Coen made it clear on the field that he didn’t appreciate Saleh’s comments after the 26-21 Jaguars win. Saleh never accused the Jaguars of doing anything illegal, but said after the game that his choice of words could have been better because he meant it as a compliment to Jacksonville’s preparation.
At the league meetings in Arizona on Tuesday, Saleh said that the two men have moved past the issue.
“We’re good,” Saleh said, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com. “I know the NFL probably wants more of a story, but there’s no story. I have an appreciation for Liam. Like I said, I used the wrong word when I was trying to give him a compliment, but all that’s under the bridge. We’ve talked and put it behind us.”
Coen said that the incident has been fodder for teasing from other coaches around the league and the two men will get a pair of chances to renew their acquaintance during the 2026 season.
Consider 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan unenthused about starting the 2026 season in Australia.
Speaking to reporters at the annual league meeting on Monday morning, Shanahan delivered a response characterized as sarcastic when asked about the team’s international schedule for 2026, which will see the club begin the year in Melbourne as an away team while also going to Mexico City later in the year as a home team.
“I was so fired up. That was our goal, to go 19 hours away to play a game,” Shanahan said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “I think we’re going back in time or into the future. I think we gain a day or lose a day — I’m not sure which one yet.
“But it is what it is. We’ll deal with it. I think there’s eight international games. We got two of them, so I’m fired up about that.”
Shanahan added he doesn’t see any positives to playing the first regular-season NFL game in Australia.
“No, not at all,” Shanahan said. “I don’t see any pro. I mean, it’s cool for the league to play globally. I think it’s awesome, but as far as the team doing it, there’s not much benefit to it.
“Sometimes it’s nice to get a bye week after, but it doesn’t happen for Week 1.
Shanahan noted teams don’t get much of a say in the international slate.
“No, they tell you, you deal with it,” he said.
The 49ers’ matchup in Mexico City is expected to land much later in the season, potentially in December.
The 49ers have made a number of changes to their coaching staff since the end of the 2025 season and they officially announced all of them on Monday.
Among the new members of the staff are former Falcons head coach Raheem Morris and former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus. Morris was fired in January and replaces Robert Saleh as the defensive coordinator. Saleh is now the Titans’ head coach.
Eberflus spent last season running the defense in Dallas and will have the title of assistant head coach defense on Kyle Shanahan’s staff.
The 49ers have also hired seasonal coaching assistant Micah Foerster, defensive passing game coordinator Jerry Gray, defensive quality control coach Angel Matute, and assistant offensive line coach Roman Sapolu.
In addition to those new hires, the 49ers also announced new titles for tight ends coach Cameron Clemmons, run game coordinator Joe Graves, passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach Leonard Hankerson, defensive run game coordinator Johnny Holland, offensive assistant/tight ends Deuce Schwartz, offensive assistant/quarterbacks Jacob Webster, and linebackers coach K.J. Wright.
Todd Bowles will be back as the Buccaneers’ head coach in 2026, but two franchise mainstays will not be in Tampa with him.
Linebacker Lavonte David has retired after 14 seasons with the team and wide receiver Mike Evans left after 12 seasons to sign with the 49ers as a free agent. During an appearance on NFL Network on Monday, Bowles discussed how difficult it will be to move on without the two veterans.
Bowles said that David’s decision “really stung me” because of how much he has meant to the defense over the years.
“He was the guy off the field that got everyone going,” Bowles said. “He practiced that way, he carried himself that way. He was, right now, the cream of the crop of who you want to coach and how you want that guy to play. He was that guy. He was that guy for us for 14 years. I can’t say enough good things about him. He was like a brother to me.”
Bowles called it “very hard to see [Evans] leave sentimentally and professionally” and that they will miss the wideout’s presence on offense, but he also noted that Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan mean the cupboard isn’t bare at receiver now that Evans is in the NFC West.
49ers General Manager John Lynch said in January that wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has played his final game for the team, but Aiyuk remains on the roster as March comes to a close.
According to head coach Kyle Shanahan, there’s no timeline in place for that to change either. The 49ers voided the remaining guarantees on Aiyuk’s contract last year, which likely contributes to the team’s decision to keep looking for a potential trade partner rather than simply releasing the wideout.
“Don’t have date,” Shanahan said from the league meetings on Monday, via Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group. “Eventually will resolve itself. Hopefully we can get something for it. We’re in no rush. We have to do what’s right for the 49ers.”
Neither the prospect of the 49ers releasing Aiyuk nor the knee injury that limited the receiver to seven 2025 games is likely to do much to help generate trade interest, but the 49ers are content to keep waiting before making any move to jettison him once and for all.
During the week of the Scouting Combine, word emerged of a potential contract impasse that was described, at the time, as potentially resulting in left tackle Trent Williams being released by the 49ers. It didn’t happen then, it hasn’t happened since, and there’s no sign it will be happening in the future.
Instead, the 49ers seem to be very optimistic that everything will work out.
“We’ve had good communication throughout,” G.M. John Lynch said Sunday, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “I would say in the last week it’s kind of intensified and feel like we’re on the precipice of something good happening, but we’ll see. Don’t want to make any statements that, like, ‘Hey, we’re right there,’ because these things have felt like that before, but I do feel like we’re in good communication and hopeful.”
Williams has a 2026 compensation package of $33.06 million. The 49ers didn’t pick up a $10 million option bonus, pushing his cap charge to $46.341 million. A new contract could reduce that number significantly by converting much of his base salary of $32.21 million into an option bonus.
“This one’s never got ugly,” Lynch said. “It’s been very straightforward, direct. And I just think there’s a lot of nuance to that situation. He’s one of the great players, I think, to ever play the game, but there’s a reality with his age. It’s like, how do you thread that needle and how do you find a deal where everyone’s taken care of and happy?”
The 49ers surely prefer not to pay him $33 million this year, none of which is currently guaranteed. The question becomes determining a structure that also gives them the ability to keep him around for 2027, and possibly beyond.
This one isn’t about Williams wanting more. It’s about the 49ers not wanting to pay $33.06 million.
Consider how it all began, with this tweet from Adam Schefter of ESPN on February 24: “With five-time All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams scheduled to carry a $39 million cap number this season, he and the 49ers currently are struggling to find a contractual solution, per league sources. If the two sides can’t bridge their differences in their standoff, Williams would be expected to join this year’s free-agent class, making him one of the premier players available.”
Again, it didn’t happen then, it hasn’t happened since, and there’s no sign it will be happening in the future.
The lack of a deadline for making a large payment or guaranteeing the salary has given the 49ers leverage. They owe him nothing until the Week 1 rosters lock. By the time the situation with Williams comes to a final head (if it ever does), other possible suitors may have made other plans and/or spent their available cash on other players.
Time is on the team’s side. The breathless notion from late last month that a split could be imminent was, if nothing else, a signal to the rest of the league (undoubtedly from Williams’s camp) that it would be wise to hold back some money, in the event Williams eventually becomes a free agent.
