49ers notebook: Joe Staley not sweating trade talk

SANTA CLARA - Offensive tackle Joe Staley doesn’t feel offended that the 49ers would trade him for the right price.

“I don’t pay attention to (the trade talk),” he said at his locker Thursday afternoon. “I’m not in control of that stuff. It’s done behind the scenes.”

Staley hasn’t considered meeting with general manager John Lynch or head coach Kyle Shanahan to talk about his future.

“They know I want to be here. I have to do my job on the field. What I’m concerned with is, coming off a game where we didn’t do a good job in pass protection, we’ve got a hell of a challenge this week against the Eagles,” he said.

On Wednesday, Shanahan addressed for the first time the possibility of trading Staley. At his news conference, Shanahan said, “Joe is a guy that I definitely want here and definitely a guy I wouldn’t want to lose by any means.

“If anybody called for any one of our players, it’s not like you just hang up the phone. If people want to offer the world, you’ve always got to listen. You’ve got to always try to think what’s going to help your team and make your team better. To lose a guy like Joe Staley, that wouldn’t be something I’d be excited about, so that’d have to take a whole lot.”

The trade deadline is Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Eric Reid’s new job: On Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, safety Eric Reid didn’t play safety - he played linebacker in the nickel defense. That was a first for him.

Now, Reid is a fulltime linebacker, and may be a starter in the base defense this Sunday against Philadelphia. 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh confirmed the move at his Thursday press conference.

“Reid, being a very physical player that he is, and being one of our smartest players, we as an organization felt like it wouldn’t be an issue for him to move a couple yards closer (to the line of scrimmage) than he already was,” Saleh said. “We thought he did a good job, and in practice he’s showing up again. There’s no doubt in my mind, if the league thinks he was a really good safety, wait until you see his versatility and what he’s able to do as a linebacker. He’s going to be unbelievable.”

Reid weighs between 217 and 220 pounds, which is small for a linebacker. But smaller linebackers have been successful in the NFL, according to Saleh.

“What they’ve mastered is the ability to get on and off blocks within a short area,” Saleh said of small linebackers. “They create space to utilize their quickness and utilize their speed. For Eric, looking at what he’s able to do, he’s very fast, has great short-area quickness and he’s very physical. Now it’s just trying to learn how to create space in such a short area.”

Reid was skeptical of the position change at first. “When they broke the news to me,” he said, “I was wondering the reasoning behind the position move. They were open and honest with me and told me they really believe it’s best for the team and they think that I can excel at the position.”

Reid’s position change could be temporary. He will be a free agent at the end of the season, and the team won’t tell him if he’s in their long-term plans. That frustrates him.

“I asked them explicitly, ‘Can you at least tell me if I’m going to be here next year to play this position?’ And they told me, ‘No.’ Coach Saleh said he hasn’t made those decisions.”

Team’s pledge: On Thursday, 49ers CEO Jed York signed a “Pledge for a More Understanding and Safer America.”

The 49ers will donate $500,000 to the new campaign, which many police unions in the country, including the San Jose Police Officers’ Association, are supporting.

“We’re committing to working with these associations to produce a public service announcement that can be used here in our community and anywhere in the country,” York said at his Thursday press conference. “Our hope is that through education, both officers and citizens will strive to make each interaction with one another grounded in mutual respect. I think we can bring law enforcement and the communities that they serve closer together, and I’m proud that we’re starting that effort.”

In addition to the pledge, the 49ers are joining police officers associations to support Congressional legislation to ban gun silencers, armor-piercing bullets and “bump stocks,” which convert semi-automatic weapons to fully automatic weapons.

“I commend these police officer associations for supporting common-sense measures to ban devices that allow for the conversion of a gun into an automatic weapon, such as those used by the man in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, killing 58 people and injuring and affecting so many other lives, including those of law enforcement,” York said.