Vernon Davis leaving San Francisco via trade after 10 seasons

The fire sale is officially over going into NFL Week Nine installment of the Match-Up Mania as the league’s trade deadline has expired.

The New England Patriots are Denver’s biggest competition, and they haven’t been shy about making trades.

The Denver Broncos on Monday acquired two-time Pro Bowl tight end Vernon Davis from the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for future late-round draft pick considerations.

The trade was confirmed by the Broncos’ general manager John Elway on his Twitter account.

Davis was on his way to a new start with a championship contender after nine-plus seasons in which he became the most productive tight end in the 49ers’ proud 70-season history. “Who knows? We’ll see what we’ve got”, Elway said. “We had a few conversations and, at the end of the day, they all resulted in the same thing – nothing”.

The Broncos have been searching for help at the tight end position since Julius Thomas departed in free agency this offseason. In Week 8, Green showed what he could do as a receiver, with three catches for 61 yards and a season-high 12 routes run. But this year, Davis, along with the rest of the 49ers’ offense, has struggled. It restricted Kubiak’s play calling, he said, by not having a third tight end. His 0.32 Reception NEP per target on 50 targets was the lowest among all tight ends who saw at least 30 pass attempts come their way.

The signing of Davis is just another move that indicates Elway’s sense of urgency while building a champion – there is no “next year”, or so it would seem. In 2013, Davis had 850 yards receiving and 13 touchdowns.

A sixth-round pick out of Maryland in 2006, Davis had 441 catches for 5,640 yards and 55 TDs for the 49ers. This isn’t the same old Vernon Davis. “You factor that into the compensation that you’re trading”.

Switching teams in pro football isn’t as easy as it is in other sports, so there’s usually a scarcity of midseason moves, and even Sunday’s rash of injuries to key players served to quash talks rather than ignite talks. “We’re trying to win from now on, but this will be a big step for us to win this season”. The Broncos have also made a few changes to the offensive line to enable them to protect him better. By Approximate Value, two picks in the 205-range are worth about the same as the 185th overall pick, which is just 20 picks earlier in the sixth-round.