Kurtenbach: DeForest Buckner isn’t an All-Pro anymore, but he’s the luxury piece the 49ers’ defense needed – Santa Cruz Sentinel

Kurtenbach: DeForest Buckner isn’t an All-Pro anymore, but he’s the luxury piece the 49ers’ defense needed  Santa Cruz Sentinel

San Francisco 49ers: Reunions in pro sports usually end poorly. But DeForest Buckner returning to the 49ers has all the makings of a win. Nostalgia’s the preferred narcotic of desperate NFL front offices, but sometimes bringing back an old flame’s just smart business. It was on Tuesday, when the 49ers jettisoned a 2027 fourth-round pick to rescue DeForest Buckner from Colts purgatory. Six-plus years ago, John Lynch shipped Buckner out of town because the salary cap’s a cruel, unforgiving taskmaster and Lynch made the wrong call about who should be sacrificed to it. But now he’s back, not as a franchise savior or an untouchable god of the trenches, but as something far more dangerous to the rest of the league: a luxury piece.

Make no mistake, the 49ers didn’t trade for the 2019 or 2020 All-Pro version of Buckner. Father Time and a litany of injuries made sure of that. But if you think Buckner’s washed, put down the box score and watch the tape. Over the past three seasons, only three interior defensive linemen in the entire NFL saw more double teams than Buckner: Chris Jones, Jeffery Simmons, and Dexter Lawrence. You think other teams are doing that because they’re bored? No. They’re still scared of what Buckner can do, and they’re right to be afraid. So many