49ers trade DT Buckner to Colts for No. 13 pick

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The 49ers locked up one star defensive lineman with a long-term contract and made plans to deal another to add a needed draft pick and salary cap room.

The defending NFC champion Niners signed defensive lineman Arik Armstead to a five-year contract worth up to $85 million on Monday to keep him off the open market and then immediately agreed to a deal to send defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to Indianapolis.

A person familiar with the trade said the 49ers will acquire the No. 13 overall pick in this year’s draft in the deal. Buckner will receive a new contract worth an average of $21 million a year, the person said on condition of anonymity because neither the trade nor the contract can become official until the start of the league year Wednesday.

It was a dramatic series of moves for a Niners team that rode the strength of the defensive line all the way to the Super Bowl.

But with Armstead needing a new contract as a potential free agent, it proved too difficult to keep both him and Buckner.

Buckner was owed about $12.4 million this season on the fifth-year option of his rookie contract and was seeking a longterm deal that would make him the second-highest paid defensive tackle to the Rams’ Aaron Donald.

That led to the trade that will give the Niners another first-round pick to go with their own at No. 31. The Niners currently have no picks in the second, third or fourth rounds thanks to previous trades and could look to trade down with one of their picks to fill those voids.

It came at a heavy cost as the Niners dealt away the player the coaches voted as team MVP last season. Buckner was picked seventh overall in 2016. He had a careerhigh 12 sacks in 2018 and then had 71⁄2 last season as part of perhaps the league’s top defensive lines with Armstead and edge rushers Nick Bosa and Dee Ford.

Now Buckner will try to bolster a Colts defense in bad need of help.