You could picture the general managers in Miami, New Orleans, New York and Tennessee in their luxury suites on Sunday, methodically tapping the pads of their fingers against one another and muttering, “Excellent … Excellent,” like a James Bond villain.
It’s not that their seasons have gone according to plan — quite the opposite.
It’s that a potential trade partner, the San Francisco 49ers, became even more desperate during Sunday’s 26-15 loss to the Houston Texans, one that laid bare the team’s greatest weakness: It has no pass rushers.
Last week, a group of backups and young guns played out of their minds, making tackles all over the field and holding the Atlanta Falcons to 10 points.
On Sunday, reality struck.
The 49ers hit Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud twice, knocked him down once and didn’t sack him at all, the second time this season the defense has gone sackless in a game. San Francisco has just nine sacks so far; only the Jacksonville Jaguars, who were on their bye this weekend, have fewer. The 49ers are on pace for 19 sacks this season. Nick Bosa had 18.5 by himself three years ago.
Only one team, Jacksonville, has fewer sacks than the 49ers. And the Jags (8 sacks) had their bye today.
Week-by-week 49ers sack total:
1
3
1
0
1
1
2
0
Total: 9
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) October 26, 2025
Without Bosa (ACL) and No. 2 pass rusher Bryce Huff (hamstring), the results were predictable in Houston. Stroud, who last week completed just 46.9 percent of his passes in a loss to the Seattle Seahawks, had a 76.9 completion percentage to go along with 318 yards and two touchdowns. This despite playing without his top two receivers, Nico Collins and Christian Kirk.
Manufacturing a pass rush didn’t help. Stroud, in fact, looked decidedly unbothered when the 49ers sent an extra rusher, including on a 30-yard touchdown to receiver Xavier Hutchinson in the third quarter.
In recent weeks, team officials have been bending over backward to signal that while they’ve been making phone calls, they don’t need to make a trade.
“We’ve got plenty in this building,” general manager John Lynch insisted Thursday during his weekly hit on KNBR radio.
Per Sunday’s television broadcast, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh told the announcing crew that the 49ers were looking forward to seeing what Sam Okuayinonu could do as a pass rusher.
Really? Okuayinonu had all sorts of opportunities last season — 450 defensive snaps — and came away with three sacks, none of them after Week 8, when he played the bulk of those snaps. He’s best described as an interesting backup, not a starting defensive end or someone who can be the spearpoint of your pass rush.
What’s more, Okuayinonu and fellow starter Jordan Elliott left Sunday’s game with ankle injuries (coach Kyle Shanahan said the early diagnosis is that neither is the dreaded high-ankle sprain), while another defensive lineman, Alfred Collins, was briefly sidelined by a shoulder issue.
Okuayinonu recorded one of the defense’s quarterback hits when he tripped up Stroud as he was attempting a pass in the second quarter. Collins had the other.
After that, it was crickets.
None of the 49ers’ other defensive ends — Mykel Williams, Trevis Gipson and Robert Beal Jr. — even sniffed a sack or a quarterback hit Sunday. That trio’s crowning pass-rush achievement: a holding penalty that Gipson drew in the fourth quarter, which ended up being offset by an illegal contact infraction by linebacker Tatum Bethune.
Who could help the 49ers at this point? Anyone.
The Jets appear willing to part with pass rusher Jermaine Johnson, who, having played under Saleh the last three seasons, would be able to contribute right away. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini recently reported that some teams have called about Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, drafted one pick after Bosa in 2019, though obtaining him would require draft capital the 49ers probably aren’t willing to give up.
The Titans’ Arden Key would likely be a fast starter, given that he had 6.5 sacks for the 49ers in 2021. Key can play defensive end and tackle, a bonus considering San Francisco has injuries at both spots.
There are rumors that Dolphins defensive ends Jaelen Phillips and Bradley Chubb might be available, while the Saints might be willing to move defensive end Carl Granderson, a Sacramento native, for the right price. The two-win Giants lost one of their rookie spark plugs, Cam Skattebo, to a dislocated ankle Sunday, which likely will douse the optimism in New York and could make the Giants open to trading a pass rusher like Kayvon Thibodeaux.
The 49ers note that Huff isn’t expected to be out very long, while Yetur Gross-Matos (hamstring), who hasn’t been placed on injured reserve, also should be back in a matter of weeks. The win over the Falcons, they keep insisting, is proof that the defense can still be effective and buzz around, even when it’s half-staffed.
But given the number of defensive line injuries over the first eight games, it’s very difficult not to expect more over the final nine. And next week’s game, which is two days before the trade deadline, is against the Giants at MetLife Stadium, a house of injury horrors for the 49ers when they were there in back-to-back games in 2020.
They need something — anything — to help them push through.
“It has to do with what’s available out there, and does it help us this year? Does it help us next year?” Shanahan said about a possible trade. “Usually, as things get closer, you get a little more idea on (which trade target is) real and who’s not, and we’ll evaluate that for the short term and long term.”