49ers’ GM John Lynch on trade deadline: ‘We weren’t going to get fleeced’

General manager John Lynch has heard the complaints, and he appreciates the passion, if not the business sense, of the 49ers’ fan base.

How can the 49ers, who have been active participants in looking for upgrades at past NFL trade deadlines, sit on their hands instead of upgrading areas of need, such as adding to the pass rush?

Lynch is for the most part off limits during the regular season in terms of media access, except for his weekly appearance on KNBR-680, the 49ers’ flagship radio station. He explained on air Thursday morning why things were so quiet at the deadline as the 49ers made no late moves to add to their roster with a 6-3 record but some obvious needs.

“We weren’t going to get fleeced,” Lynch said. “We weren’t going to overpay. It’s just not good business. And as they say, sometimes the best deals are the ones you don’t make. And I felt like in this case, we felt like that was the best course.”

So the 49ers went with a pat hand rather than going all-in on a deal that could affect the future. In all, the 49ers have made four deals in the time leading up to the deadline. The last one was for defensive end/tackle Keion White, a former second-round pick by New England who came along with a seventh-round draft pick in exchange for the 49ers’ sixth-round pick.

White played 33 snaps in his 49ers debut in a 34-24 win over the New York Giants after three days of practice.

In all, the 49ers made deals for four players since the start of the trading period in March: White, edge rusher Bryce Huff on June 2 (conditional mid-round pick to Philadelphia), running back Brian Robinson Jr. (sixth-round pick to Washington), and wide receiver/return specialist Skyy Moore (sixth-round pick to Kansas City, with 49ers getting back a seventh).

In the cases of Huff and Moore, the 49ers agreed to pick up some extra salary, $7.95 million for Huff and $1.5 million for Moore.

“The deadline’s just an endpoint,” Lynch said. “We’ve been making trades. We’re top four in the league in terms of trades made this year.”

It’s not clear what sliding scale metric Lynch is using for those calculations. According to numbers crunched by Cam Inman of Bay Area News Group, the Philadelphia Eagles (10), New York Jets (7), Dallas Cowboys (7) and New Orleans Saints (5) all acquired more players by trade than the 49ers while Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Houston also had four.

As both Lynch and Shanahan said repeatedly heading into the deadline, the 49ers were not inclined to lose much more draft capital or make a trade which would upset their salary structure in future years, nor did they want to bring in someone who could be lost to free agency in 2026.

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“We were in on a lot of players,” Lynch said. “Sometimes it was just a one-year rental, and we really didn’t want to get involved in that. Not to say that we wouldn’t. Is the player a true needle-mover, a difference-maker? And if you can’t say that, well then, really good draft picks, that doesn’t make much sense either, just to throw somebody else in the mix, because we like the guys we have.”

With regard to injured players, Lynch said quarterback Brock Purdy (right turf toe) continues to make progress with the potential of suiting up Sunday against the Rams and while Brandon Aiyuk (ACL/MCL) won’t have his practice window opened this week, he expects it to happen relatively soon.

Staff writer Cam Inman contributed to this report.