SANTA CLARA – The 49ers kept alive an annual ritual of adding a veteran player, beating Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline to acquire defensive tackle Khalil Davis from the Houston Texans, a league source confirmed.
Davis’ arrival is not surprising considering the 49ers’ low stock of defensive tackles, having lost Javon Hargrave to a torn triceps in Week 3.
Otherwise, the 49ers’ lastest playoff push will revolve around their own reinforcements, and they may tout the NFL’s biggest midseason upgrade. Running back Christian McCaffrey should make his season debut Sunday when the 49ers (4-4) visit the Tampa Bay Bucs (4-5), so long as McCaffrey’s Achilles issues don’t flare up after this week’s re-entry to practice, especially after Thursday’s biggest workload of the week.
The need at defensive tackle was glaring, and helping address that will be Davis — not to be confused with Kalia Davis, the 49ers’ third-year veteran who’s played four games on their defensive interior’s rotation.
Khalil Davis (6-foot-1, 300 pounds) has played 27 games since breaking into the NFL as a 2020 sixth-round pick of the Bucs. That includes 24 games, 22 tackles, three sacks and one start since joining the Houston Texans in 2023 and reviving his career. He also had stints with the Indianapolis Colts (2021), Pittsburgh Steelers (2021, practice squad), the Bucs again (2022, practice squad), the Los Angeles Rams (2022, practice squad) and the 2023 Birmingham Stallions of the United States Football League.
The 49ers will still rely heavily on free-agent additions Maliek Collins and Jordan Elliott, with other relief available via Kevin Givens, Evan Anderson and practice-squad options T.Y. McGill and Nesta Jade Silvera. Expected to rejoin the fray as an interior pass rusher is Yetur Gross-Matos, whose recovery from knee surgery had him working on the side Monday.
While the 49ers got their deal done for Davis minutes before Tuesday’s deadline, there would be no reunion with past 49ers defensive linemen such as D.J. Jones (Broncos), Arden Key (Titans) or Sebastian Joseph-Day (Titans).
Left tackle Trent Williams expressed curiosity Monday about the 49ers’ trade-deadline plans, saying a “super aggressive” approach in the past could lead to another trade. “And if not,” Williams said, “we’ve got more than enough in this locker room to go to war with anybody.”
By idlling on trade-deadline day, the 49ers must lean on their depth to overcome their two biggest losses in the first half of this season – we’re talking personnel in terms of wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and Hargrave, not their divisional collapses to the Los Angeles Rams and the Arizona Cardinals.
At wide receiver, first-round draft pick Ricky Pearsall is two games into a rookie season delayed by an unfathomable gunshot wound through his chest. With Jauan Jennings expected to play through a hip muscle injury, and with Deebo Samuel presumably recovered from last month’s bout with pneumonia, the receiving corps was not desperate for veteran help, as it was in 2019 with the trade-deadline move for Emmanuel Sanders.
Thus, the 49ers were not compelled to pony up the type of mid-round draft pick that others did for DeAndre Hopkins (Chiefs), Amari Cooper (Bills), Davante Adams (Jets), Diontae Johnson (Ravens), Mike Williams (Steelers) and Jonathan Mingo (Cowboys).
A year ago, the 49ers brought in not just one but two defensive ends before the deadline, though neither Chase Young (third-round pick) nor Randy Gregory (sixth-rounder, with a seventh in return) delivered ideal production.
This year, three of the 49ers’ biggest competitors for the Super Bowl traded for defensive end help without coughing up a Day 1 or 2 draft pick: the Lions added Za’Darius Smith (Browns), the Chiefs brought in Josh Uche (Patriots), the Steelers poached Preston Smith (Packers), and the Cardinals got themselves an Ohio State product in Baron Browning (Broncos).
Since coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch arrived in 2017, the 49ers traded near or at the deadline every previous season except in 2018. Their haul of imports:
2017: Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (Patriots, second-round pick)
2019: Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders (Broncos; third and fourth round picks, with fifth in return).
2020: Defensive end Jordan Willis (Jets; sixth round, with seventh in return), 2021: Defensive end Charles Omenihu (Texans; sixth round)
2022: Running back Christian McCaffrey (Panthers; second, third, fourth, fifth round)
2023: Defensive ends Randy Gregory (Broncos; sixth round, with seventh in return) and Chase Young (Commanders; third round)
NOTE: Tom Brady will be on Fox Sports’ broadcast of Sunday’s game; that same crew worked the 49ers’ last two defeats, home losses last month to Arizona and Kansas City.
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