© Trevor Ruszkowski | 2018 Mar 1
On Thursday morning, the 49ers traded linebacker Eli Harold to the Detroit Lions for a seventh-round pick in 2020. That afternoon, general manager John Lynch joined Lund & Middlekauff to explain the decision for moving the 2015 third-round pick.
“That’s a tough one, because Eli’s been everything we could ask for in terms of the way he comes to work each and every day,” Lynch said. “Our SAM linebacker position is one that frankly less and less is on the field because of the way people are playing this game, and that is with three wide receivers so really your base set is your nickel. So our SAM has to be able to do other things and probably directly related to the Reuben Foster offseason, we gathered a lot of stack linebackers we think can play at a high level. So you can use your SAM linebacker as a rusher in your nickel defense or you can use him in different spots as a linebacker. And you start looking at how are we going to comprise our roster and you have to start making decisions.”
Harold, 24, started 24 games over the past two seasons, including 11 in 2017. Harold ranked 11th on the 49ers last season with 34 tackles and had two sacks. The trade makes Dekoda Watson the de facto starter, and will likely also increase the roles of Pita Taumoepenu, Mark Nzeocha and rookie Fred Warner, who has looked impressive in camp.
“Eli is a guy that we really care about and we started canvasing the league to see if there was interest. There was, so we made a move. Those aren’t easy to do particularly when they’re guys you really think highly of, but we felt it was in Eli’s best interest and our best interest.”
Listen to the full interview below. For Lynch on Harold start from the beginning.