It’s safe to say the 49ers won that trade.
There’s a lot of bad things many would say about the John Lynch/Kyle Shanahan regime, draft picks, free agency spending, there’s arguments. Here’s one everything can agree on: they won the Rashard Robinson trade. Because one season after trading Robinson to the New York Jets, the Jets announced they waived Robinson on on Friday.
While Robinson has a good chance of finding his way into an NFL training camp somewhere, it’s quite the fall from what was considered the 49ers starting cornerback at one point. Robinson was drafted in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. An odd choice considering he was kicked off LSU’s team before the start of the 2015 season. He showed promise in his 2016 rookie campaign, enough to have Kyle Shanahan designate him the starter upon the latter’s arrival in San Francisco.
Unfortunately, the only thing Robinson could be consistent at was trash talking and pass interference penalties. As the 2017 season wore on, the 49ers had enough and put him on the bench. Following an altercation with the coaches, the 49ers shipped him off to the Jets for a fifth-round pick.
A fourth round pick turned into a fifth-round pick that is out of the league a year and a half later. By comparison, the 49ers traded Vance McDonald and a fifth round pick to get the Pittsburgh Steelers’ fourth rounder and McDonald hasn’t looked half-bad.
We’ve kept tabs on several 49ers to see how their careers pan out and if they can hit it big elsewhere. This is another Trent Baalke pick that might not make it past their rookie contract if no one picks them up on waivers.
The 49ers won this trade. Robinson may become another statistic. Another Trent Baalke draft pick that may be on their way out of the league.
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