Hours before the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft kicked off Thursday in Nashville, a rumor swirled that the San Francisco 49ers were shopping defensive lineman Solomon Thomas.
After the Niners used the No. 2 overall pick on edge rusher Nick Bosa, GM John Lynch denied the report's veracity.
"That's not accurate," Lynch said, via the Sacramento Bee. "We usually don't respond to every one of these rumors that happens in today's world. I had Solly up in my office today, and we just talked exactly where he is, and he's a big part of our team right now that we're extremely excited about moving forward with him."
Potentially shopping Thomas on the face of it could make some sense if Lynch got the right offer. With Bosa, Thomas, Arik Armstead, DeForest Buckner and Dee Ford, the 49ers now have five first-round picks on the defensive line. Thomas would seem to be the player most affected by Bosa's addition.
Lynch, however, likes Thomas' versatility to play inside out the edge and said the defensive lineman would "absolutely" be a Niner in 2019.
"You put this puzzle together, and we want to be a group that stays fresh, that can close out halves, can close out third downs, can close out games," Lynch said. "And I think our players last longer if there's a lot of them, and we feel like we have a lot of quality players, and Solly is a big part of that."
As for kicker Robbie Gould's trade request, the 49ers also shot that down.
Asked Thursday night if the team would honor Gould's wish, coach Kyle Shanahan responded a blunt: "No."
San Francisco might know it likely won't come to a long-term solution but want to keep the accurate kicker for at least one more year on the franchise tag.
"We understand that he doesn't want to live here long-term and he's made that clear to us, and we get that," Shanahan said. "But, we do have a franchise tag and he's that good of a kicker that he's worth franchising. So, unfortunately we know we're not going to have him long-term here. I think that's been pretty clear. No hard feelings about that."
