The last time DeForest Buckner stood behind the lectern that he did Monday afternoon, he was a lot younger — some six years — and a whole lot poorer, say by $140 million or so.
With age comes wisdom, and over his time away Buckner seemed to have learned a lesson.
There’s always green in the bag, but that doesn’t always apply to the other side of the grass.
The only person happier than the 49ers Faithful and the existing inhabitants of their locker room in Santa Clara to hear the news of their trade for Buckner might have been Buckner himself.
“I’ll be honest, I just fell to my knees and started praying,” the current and former 49ers defensive tackle said of his reaction to the trade that sent him from the Colts, where he signed in free agency back in 2020, to San Francisco, the only other organization he has known.
“It’s just crazy the way everything happened. God, he’ll open doors you thought were closed, and he was able to open this one back up for me.”
When Buckner left for the Colts, the 49ers were coming off their first trip to the Super Bowl under Kyle Shanahan, a run fueled in large part by a dominant defensive line. San Francisco thought it could reallocate the money and replace Buckner through the draft.
In Indianapolis, Buckner saw a team that “obviously wanted me” and “invested in me.” He “gave that organization my heart and soul,” earning first-team All-Pro honors in his first season and appearing in all but two of a possible 68 games over his first four years there.
Yet, Buckner had one playoff game to show for it — a wild-card round loss in his first season. At 2-6 this season, his frustrations seemed to grow in each of his postgame sessions this season.
Finally, his prayers were answered.
As was the specific request he made to principal owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon and interim general manager Ed Dodds.
“When everything kind of unfolded, I made it pretty – I mean, I stated it – that I wanted to come here,” Buckner said. “I didn’t want to go anywhere else.”
Buckner’s inner circle of football friends basically makes up a map of the prominent stalls in the 49ers’ locker room: Fred Warner, George Kittle, Kyle Juszczyk, Nick Bosa, Dre Greenlaw, Deebo Samuel. They stayed in touch, and Buckner never stopped tuning in.
“I’ve been keeping up with the games over the years,” he said. “Just watching the standard of football they play at, the winning football they play – this is where I wanted to be. …
“Over the years they’d be like, ‘Come back home, bro. Come back home.’ I had my own things that I needed to do out in Indy. Lo and behold, I’m here.”
While Buckner agonized over ultimately requesting his trade from the Colts, there was a certain standard that he had become accustomed to with the 49ers that was absent in Indianapolis.
“I know the standard here,” Buckner said. “It’s very high. It’s Super Bowl or bust.”
To be clear: It’s not like the Niners won the breakup, either.
Not unlike Samuel and Greenlaw, whose sabbaticals lasted only one season, the 49ers tried to move on from Buckner and never quite filled the hole created by his departure.
Or, in Bucker’s case, occupied the gap.
With their first selection that spring, they drafted Javon Kinlaw 14th overall. Injuries prevented him from playing more than 200 snaps in two of his four seasons before the 49ers let him walk.
They signed Javon Hargrave, who gave them one Pro Bowl season in 2023 before getting injured and eventually released the following year. After going back to the well for Alfred Collins and C.J. West in last year’s draft, they seem to have accepted reality:
They couldn’t do better than Buckner. And there’s no place Buckner would rather be.
Both sides realized their best chance at achieving the ultimate goal was together.
He watched them make a return trip to the Super Bowl in 2023, only to come up short against the same opponent that snuffed out their dreams three seasons earlier.
Now, back together again, Buckner said, “there is unfinished business.”
“We definitely talked about it,” he said. “Me coming back and everything like that, it’s great, a little nostalgic and things like that, but there’s still a job to do.”
That work has already gotten under way. Upstairs, general manager John Lynch continues to work the phones to further bolster the 49ers roster ahead of the Nov. 10 trade deadline.
In the facility, it hasn’t taken Buckner long to get back into his long-held routines.
Just earlier Monday morning, he was catching up with Warner over a coffee.
“He’s been preaching about how you want to continue to be a team on the rise, which I really love,” Bucker said. “This is the part of the season where teams start falling off and the really select group continues to rise and get better every single week.”
The message landed on eager ears.
“That’s what I’m still trying to do,” Buckner said. “Everything happens for a reason. Life just came full circle and I’m back. I’m a Niner again.”
