John Lynch rules out Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel; talks Mac Jones and Brandon Aiyuk
· Yahoo Sports
San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch made his weekly appearance on KNBR. He confirmed the Niners weren’t in on the Quenton Nelson trade.
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Lynch spoke about the process of bringing DeForest Buckner back and said his name got brought up in the weekly pro personnel meetings around Weeks 3 and 4, where the scouting department said Buckner was “playing out of his mind.”
Lynch believes Buckner is playing as well as he has all his career and highlighted how he’s playing all over the line and is on the field for “about 80% of the snaps.” Lynch mentioned that Buckner’s ability to play as much will help get Osa Odighizuwa’s snaps under control.
Is Mac Jones on the trade block?
The Baltimore Ravens were one of the few teams that could have traded for Mac Jones, but they opted for Jacoby Brissett from the Arizona Cardinals because of familiarity between the two sides.
Lynch was asked if the 49ers are getting calls about the availability of Jones:
“We get calls on a variety of things. We’re very comfortable with Mac. He makes our team better. Brock is our guy. But we’ve also seen what Mac can do, if called upon. We’d have to be really motivated to move Mac in a situation where it makes too much sense in what we had and what we were able to receive for that. But we’re very comfortable with keeping Mac. He’s just a fun guy to be around. The energy he brings to our team is awesome. Not a bad position to have strength in numbers and strength in quality at. We know we have that.”
What will happen with Brandon Aiyuk?
The 49ers players didn’t seem like they wanted to associate with Aiyuk when he reports to the team on Friday:
As you might expect, not a lot of enthusiasm in #49ers locker room to answer questions about Brandon Aiyuk:
— Nick Wagoner (@nwagoner) November 4, 2026
Christian McCaffrey: "I don't make any of those decisions, so it's not on my radar. I just focus on my job. I haven't thought about it."
Nick Bosa: “Oh man. I don’t…
Here’s what Lynch said about the looming Aiyuk situation:
“No. 1, we’ve got a 6-1 football team that we think really has a shot at this year. So, our focus is going to remain on this team. Kyle spoke of that yesterday. Now look, having said that, I have a job to do. And it entails a lot of different things. This is kind of a unique situation. Not one you have. There’s really no playbook.
But I always go back to what’s my charge, what’s my job? My job is to look out for the best interest of the 49ers. As such, in this particular situation, we’re working with the NFL management council to navigate through sort of a different situation. It’s fluid; we’re going to kind of leave it at that because I believe it’s the right thing to do. We’ll look for a pathway for both sides that works. How about this for a deal, next week, we can talk a little more in detail about the process. It’s kind of a fluid situation.”
Lynch said, “Of course,” when asked if he’d listen to Aiyuk and his agent talk about a possible reunion. “I think everything’s possible. I will say this, we’ve worked with Drew [Rosenhaus] a lot. Drew is a good guy to deal with. He’s reasonable. He’s got integrity. In terms of that, that’s all good. We’ll see how this thing goes. I think we’ll just leave it at that. I’ll have a lot more to share with you in the coming weeks.”
Which receivers will be healthy for Week 9?
When asked about whether the team is still looking to add a wide receiver, Lynch said:
“We will see. We have until Tuesday. We’re excited. We got a couple of guys back. Demarcus Robinson back on the field yesterday. We gotta get him through today’s practice. Thursday’s kind of a grind of a practice. D-Rob was really on a good path. So having him back is a really good sign for us. KhaDarel Hodge came back and joined our practice squad. KhaDarel was playing some really good football. In the coming weeks, we hope to get Deebo and Mike back in the fold as well. We’ve got those guys coming back. As I’ve said consistently, we’ve probably made the move that we were most targeted on in the DeFo move. That may be it. We’re really happy with our team. We’ll see. We’ll keep the phones working until Tuesday until 12:58, I guess, and see what else we can do. And that maybe it. We really love this team.”
Lynch was asked a follow-up about Mike Evans: “I don’t know if I’d rule that out; it’s probably likely that he won’t be out there Sunday. What we’re really trying to do there, he’s got that tendonitis that flared up. I think you learn from the history of them, right? Christian had this situation. And every player is different, every situation is different, but you don’t want it to become something that really lingers. So we’re trying to knock it out, such that when he comes back, we’re giving him the best chance to stay back. Mike’s doing really hard to do that.”
As for De’Zhaun Stribling:
“Strib’s come along well. He had a surgery after Australia. He’s tracking well. I’m not going to get into timelines, but Strib’s coming. He fits in that same mold as the profile of Mike Evans, a tireless worker. So Strib is putting the work in. Hopefully, at the end of this season, we’ll have Strib back in the fold.”