The New England Patriots didn't give up much to acquire embattled wide receiver Josh Gordon from the Cleveland Browns in a trade this week.
But earlier this season, the price was a lot higher for the Chicago Bears to land pass rusher Khalil Mack from the Raiders.
In both cases, the 49ers were involved with some level of interest. On Friday, coach Kyle Shanahan said the 49ers made a competitive run at acquiring Mack.
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“Yeah, we went pretty hard,” Shanahan said Friday. “We went real hard.”
The Bears gave up first-round draft picks in 2019 and ’20, a third-rounder in 2020 and a sixth-rounder in 2019 in return for Mack and a second-round pick in 2020 and a conditional fifth-rounder in 2020. Chicago also signed Mack to a six-year, $141 million contract.
Shanahan often says the 49ers always will look at every option available to improve the team -- if the move makes sense with the composition of the locker room and the future of the organization.
“When you’re talking about people who are extreme difference makers, you do everything you can to try to add those type of guys to your team,” Shanahan said, “especially when it came to the first guy you mentioned (Mack) with the pass rush and everything.
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“Then, you’ve got to think about salary cap. Thinking about how you’re going to balance contracts, what that means not just right now but what it means next year, who you can re-sign next year, who you have to lose, how you’re going to spend the draft next year. There’s so many more things that go into it than just, ‘Is that guy a good player or not?’ ”
There were a lot more off-the-field concerns with Gordon, who played in just 11 of the past 66 games with the Browns due mostly to NFL suspensions. Shanahan was Cleveland’s offensive coordinator in 2014, when Gordon served 10 games of an NFL suspension and a one-game ban for breaking team rules.
That history with Gordon appears to be the reason the 49ers opted to stay away from the receiver, general manager John Lynch intimated on an appearance on KNBR.
”If there’s a chance to improve your team, you always look into it,” Lynch said. “But in certain situations, particularly when you have knowledge of a player, you sit back and you weigh it. And sometimes it’s intriguing. But then, I think sometimes, particularly when you have knowledge of someone, the more you look into it, ‘You know what? We’re going to stay away from that.’ ”
Said Shanahan: “We looked into it. Josh would’ve been a great bonus for anybody, but there’s always stuff that you’ve got to give up things to get it. That stuff can hurt you and affect you in the future. Josh is a guy that I really like a lot as a person. Everyone knows how good of a player he is. He’s in a real good place (New England). They’ll give him a good chance, and I wish him the best there.”
The Patriots sent a 2019 fifth-round pick and a conditional seventh-round selection to the Browns for Gordon.
