My theory is someone from the 49ers organization leaked to the media that a deal was virtually done to encourage better trade offers from teams.
The reason is simple, if they truly had a deal in place, they would have also leaked the team that it was being done with. Without that information, it just sounds like an Urban Legend, that people ran with and took as fact. Here is the latest from Pro Football Talk.
Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee reports that the 49ers don’t have a deal in place to trade Smith once the trading period opens at 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12.
Barrows notes at the outset of his tweet that it’s lying time in the NFL. But if the Niners are letting it leak that a deal is “effectively done” and not identifying the name of the team, there’s a good chance that there is no team — and that the tactic is aimed at smoking a team or two out of the weeds.
Maybe the 49ers have an offer on the table or maybe they don’t, but the lesson to be learned, is never believe anything until it is DONE, not “EFFECTIVELY DONE“.