Steelers Trade: Steelers trade 4th round pick for 49ers TE Vance McDonald

If you follow the Pittsburgh Steelers closely, you could feel they were going to make some trades before the start of the regular season, but I wouldn’t have suggested it would have been at the tight end position.

Nonetheless, the Steelers have traded a reported 4th round draft pick to the San Francisco 49ers for tight end Vance McDonald

McDonald was drafted in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft out of Rice, and spent his entire career thus far with the 49ers.

Throughout his time in San Francisco, he has totaled 866 yards receiving off 64 receptions, and 7 touchdowns. He has averaged 13.5 yards per reception in his career, and has started at least 11 games the past two seasons.

Statistically, he might not be what fans were looking for in the era of the “modern tight end” which looks more like a receiver than a tight end, but with the acquisition of McDonald, you have to wonder whose job is in jeopardy because of it?

Suddenly, the depth chart that was David Johnson, Jesse James, Xavier Grimble and Jake McGee is anything but settled. It is safe to suggest Grimble and McGee’s jobs are no longer safe, not suggesting they ever were, with McDonald now on the team.

UPDATE: The move is now official