There has been speculation this offseason that the 49ers might try to make a trade up the draft board from the 30th pick and General Manager Trent Baalke admitted Friday that it is a real possibility.
With six of the first 100 picks in the draft, Baalke said at Friday’s pre-draft press conference that the team has the “ammunition” to make a big move up the draft board.
“Do we have the motivation to do that? It depends,” Baalke said.
The variables that would impact a final decision aren’t clear, but one imagines that the price tag and availability of a coveted player are at the top of the list. One direction the 49ers could look is wide receiver, where they could use an injection of talent and Sammy Watkins and Mike Evans are the top prospects and are expected to go in the top 10.
That wasn’t the only potential trade on Baalke’s agenda. He also addressed talk of a desire to deal running back LaMichael James by saying, via Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee, that the team has no plans to trade James and that his understanding was that James did not report for voluntary workouts because he is working out in Texas after the birth of his child. Teams rarely wave a banner signaling their intention to trade one of their players, so you can’t totally rule out more to come involving a player the 49ers had very little use for last season.