49ers trade linebacker Eli Harold to Lions for draft pick

SANTA CLARA - The 49ers practically gave away their starting outside linebacker only 17 days before the regular-season opener.

On Thursday, the 49ers traded strong-side linebacker Eli Harold to the Detroit Lions for a conditional seventh-round draft pick in 2020. Harold must pass a physical before the trade becomes official. Head coach Kyle Shanahan met with reporters Thursday in the team's auditorium to explain the Harold trade, but his explanation was complicated.

“It was a tough decision,” Shanahan said. “As this week went, just looking into how our final 53-man roster is going to work out, I won't say it was just about Eli, it has to do a lot with how we think we're going to use people on game day, who's going to be up between defensive linemen, outside linebackers, inside linebackers.

“All three of those positions kind of play together and we've got some numbers issues at certain spots. We kind of saw how it was probably going to go and we wanted to do what was best for Eli and best for this organization and make that decision now.”

Shanahan seemed to suggest the team would have cut Harold at the end of preseason because he doesn't offer enough versatility to back up multiple positions. But Harold wasn't a backup. He was a starter all of last season, and throughout training camp. And until Thursday, the 49ers were preparing him to be a starter once again.

Harold, 24, was the 49ers' third-round pick in 2015. He recorded only five sacks in three seasons, but didn't play in passing situations. He was a run defender. He also was one of the three 49ers who initially knelt for the national anthem. The first two, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid, are gone. Now Harold is gone, too.

His replacement, 28-year-old former seventh-round pick Mark Nzeocha, also entered the NFL in 2015. He has started zero games and recorded zero sacks during his career. But he will start Saturday in the 49ers' third preseason game, against the Indianapolis Colts. Shanahan announced this during his Thursday press conference. Nzeocha will play Harold's position, strong-side linebacker, or SAM, as coaches refer to it.

After Shanahan made the announcement, a reporter asked him if Nzeocha impressed the coaching staff during training camp and if that's the reason the team felt comfortable trading Harold.

“No, it's about a lot of things,” Shanahan said, which didn't exactly clear things up.

Last season, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh went into great detail explaining why Harold is good. That was on Dec. 28.

“He might not show up on the stat sheet,” Saleh said, “but what Eli's been able to do run-game wise, he's one of the better edge setters I've ever been around from a SAM-linebacker standpoint. If you watch his tape, you'd see he's very, very strong. There's nothing that he does that hurts this defense.”

An “edge setter” forces the running back to cut away from the sideline and toward the middle of the field, where the heart of the defense is. An edge setter doesn't make many tackles, but he allows others to make them. He is essential to defending the run.

A reporter reminded Shanahan on Thursday what Saleh said about Harold setting the edge.

“Yeah, he does set the edge very well,” Shanahan said, agreeing with Saleh. “I would love to keep Eli. But we need more than that, and Eli can do more than that, but it's how you balance out your roster. It's hard to have just a SAM linebacker up on game day unless he's going into D-line. Now, how many D-linemen do you have up on game day?

“When you do that, now you're going to have four inside linebackers up on game day. Which one of those is playing special teams? What happens when your SAM gets hurt? Does one go over or do one of your D-linemen go out? I know everyone wants a big, simple, easy answer for everyone to say. But it's why it took us until going over the final 53 or having an idea of what the final 53 was to even help us come to this conclusion.”

The real reason for the trade may reveal itself soon. By sending Harold to the Lions, the 49ers created an open roster spot. Now, they can sign a player such as veteran Elvis Dumervil, a free agent who led the 49ers defense with 6½ sacks last season. He is far superior to Harold as a pass rusher.

On Wednesday, a day before the trade, a reporter asked Saleh if the 49ers will consider signing Dumervil.

“You know, that's a fair question,” Saleh said, “one that I will leave for John Lynch and Kyle and everybody. We have great conviction on the men that are here, and we're going to coach our tails off with the guys that are here.”

Except for Harold. He's not here anymore.

Lots of questions. Still no concrete answers.

NOTES

Shanahan expects the following five injured starters to play against the Colts: DL Solomon Thomas (concussion), CB K'Waun Williams (ankle), DL Arik Armstead (hamstring), linebacker Malcolm Smith (hamstring) and CB Richard Sherman (hamstring),

“We're playing Sherman with the starters and we'd like the starters to play the first half,” Shanahan said. “I'd like to keep Richard on the same plan. We'll see how it goes. We'll monitor his reps. You don't know if it's a ton of reps. You never know how long two quarters can go. Hopefully, he gets enough so that he feels comfortable. I'm leaning a lot on Sherm with this. He's finally got to the point where we feel he can go and not have setbacks.”