A peek at the dreadfully bad 49ers trades (O.J., Plunkett) and good to Super ones
Trades shake up franchises, for better or worse.
They offer up hope, sometimes fire up a fan base and a culture change (yawn) for introductory news conferences.
Some transactions work, some blow up.
The 49ers have had their share. For every Fred Dean acquisition that helped key the club’s first Super Bowl season in 1981 with a revamped pass rush, they found fool’s gold and empty promises.
For every Jimmy Garoppolo trade to ensure quarterback stability, there was a Jim Plunkett of a clunker.
Garopollo has been a hit. He arrived for a second-round pick to New England on Oct. 31, 2017. Garoppolo started fast with the 1-9 49ers, going 5-0 down the stretch of a lost season. He went down early last season with a torn knee ligament, and the 49ers lost their steam, limping home at 4-12.
The 49ers are 15-3 now, headed to the Super Bowl to face the Kansas City Chiefs in Miami, with a steady if a hardly a spectacular Garpollo at the wheel. Garpollo has mostly handed off in the playoffs as the 49ers have rushed 47 and 42 times to blast past Minnesota and Green Bay, but ask any 49ers fan and they’ll take Garopollo over Tom Brady, the man he backed up in New England.
49ers Blunders: Plunkett move set the standard
The 49ers used to throw around draft picks like a beach ball. Draft picks are treasured now when they used to be a great deal undervalued.
In 1976, San Francisco traded two first-round picks and a second-rounder to the New England Patriots for Plunkett. This wasn’t the same laser-sharp Plunkett who won Heisman Trophy honors at nearby Stanford earlier in the decade.
This was damaged-goods Plunkett, beaten to a pulp behind a porous line in New England. The humane thing to do was to ship him home to the Bay Area, but the deal was a dud for the 49ers. Monte Clark, the 49ers coach then, said when the deal was finalized, “Obtaining Jim Plunkett is a vital cornerstone toward building the kind of club we want the 49ers to become.”
Plunkett never emerged as the starter, was waived in 1978 and then reborn with the Raiders after two seasons on the bench, winning Super Bowls following the 1980 and ‘84 seasons. Clark didn’t last long either. The Plunkett move prompted Bill Walsh to seek a quarterback in his first draft in 1979 when the first-year coach found Joe Montana.
The O.J. Simpson years
Disastrous drafts helped pave a golden path to the Hall of Fame for Walsh, who expertly used picks to grab players to build a dynasty. Without Walsh, the 49ers might have been set back much longer.
In 1978, the 49ers thought 31-year old O.J. Simpson still had the juice to run. They liked his chances to sell tickets as a hometown favorite back in his old neighborhood. He was, at the time, the second-most prolific rusher in NFL history.
“Home at last! Great God almighty, I’m home at last,” a jubilant Simpson said at a news conference after somehow passing his physical.
It was a disaster. For a first-rounder, two second-rounders and third- and fourth-round picks, the 49ers received from Buffalo a grinning Simpson who had shot knees and fumes in his tank. The 49ers went 2-14 in each of Simpson’s final two NFL seasons. He rarely practiced, and he mustered just 1,053 yards and four touchdowns those two futile seasons.
Simpson tried to leverage a trade before. He threatened to retire from the Bills in 1976 if he was not shipped to the Rams. The Bills actually tried to make it work, but the Bills turned down the Rams’ final offer of all 12 of their 1977 draft picks.
My, how times have changed. Walsh used the draft and crafty trades to reboot the 49ers.
Four impact 49ers trades
1981: Early in the season, the 49ers sent a second-round pick to San Diego for Dean, who infuriated Chargers owner Gene Klein with his demands for a richer contract to match his impact. The 49ers lost one game the rest of the way with Dean rushing quarterbacks and won their first Super Bowl. Dean said before his Hall of Fame induction, “I made it to the other side of the rainbow.”
1986: A flurry of trades landed the 49ers draft picks that turned into defensive end Charles Haley, fullback Tom Rathman, cornerback Tim McKyer and tackle Steve Wallace, each a key piece to the repeat Super Bowl teams of 1988 and ‘89.
1987: Bill Walsh traded second- and fourth-round picks to Tampa Bay for quarterback Steve Young, who waited his turn, admirably replaced Joe Montana, won the Super Bowl following the 1994 season and landed in the Hall of Fame.
2017: The 49ers traded a second-round pick to New England for its backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who is now in the Super Bowl.
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 9:37 AM with the headline "A peek at the dreadfully bad 49ers trades (O.J., Plunkett) and good to Super ones."