The 49ers announced they’ve traded center Daniel Kilgore to the Dolphins. Kilgore will take the place of Mike Pouncey, who will be released. 
In the swap, the Niners will send a seventh-round pick to Miami and receive a seventh-round pick in return, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. In the deal, Miami will assume both Kilgore’s contract and bonus.
Kilgore inked an extension with San Francisco just one month ago, but the signing of Weston Richburg has displaced him. There was some thought to Richburg playing guard for the Niners, but we now know that he’ll be lining up at his native position.
Kilgore will cost the Dolphins $5.3MM in 2018, including a $2.3MM roster bonus that comes due on Thursday. After that, he has cap hits of $2.7MM in 2019 and $3.6MM in 2020. Those numbers are significantly cheaper than the contract of Pouncey, who would have carried cap hits of $9MM, $8.2MM, and $9MM over the next three seasons.
Last summer, Kilgore projected as a reserve for San Francisco. However, after the Niners waived Jeremy Zuttah, he beat out free agent pickup Tim Barnes for the starting job. The advanced metrics weren’t keen on him, but the Niners felt he had considerable value. That is, until Richburg became available this week.
[RELATED: Dolphins Depth Chart]
Niners still need a Guard…
Exactly. I don’t get this move. And they basically got nothing but moved up a few spots in the 7th round I think and some cap space but not like they needed to free up money and they really could’ve used one these guys at Guard.
I don’t think the idea was for the 49ers to win this trade. I assume they don’t want to do Kilgore wrong by signing him then trading him a month later. I also assume they talked Kilgore before this trade took place. I was hoping Richburg could play guard as well.
Wow. Kind of shocked by this. I know Kilgore and Jimmy G hit it off and had a good connection right off the bat and I though having Kilgore and Richburg shored up our line but now we still have a whole on that line. Hope they either draft someone or sign someone but we gotta do something. I know Garnett comes back but we never know what we will get with him.
“Hole” on that line. “Whole” means everything or all.
They exchanged seventh rounders…Is that a misprint?
Great move Fins … A Sitton, Kilgore and Larsen middle should be a good middle unit. Juwan James and Tunsil need to grow on the ends.
Kilgore was signed, as somewhat of an insurance policy at Center. Now with Richburg now on board for BIG $$$, they needed to move Kilgore as a favor because he would’ve been either a backup or a cap casualty!
Richburg wasn’t an option when they signed Kilgore. So this move is to just clear cap room and give Kilgore a location where he’ll be a starter.
I have no problem with this move. I think Richburg is a better center, and clearly so do the 49ers.