It's no secret that the San Francisco 49ers are widely considered to still be in the market for a wide receiver in free agency, despite signing Randy Moss to a one-year deal before the period began. The market shrank a little when Marques Colston re-signed with the New Orleans Saints with a five-year deal. Now it looks like the market got a little bit better for San Francisco.
Just before we hit the mark for free agency (oh God it's starting), Jay Glazer broke a pretty big trade on Twitter, as Brandon Marshall appears to have been traded from the Miami Dolphins to the Chicago Bears for a couple of third-round picks. Marshall is one of the NFL's best receivers and likely wanted to hook back up with Jay Cutler in Chicago to get his career on track.
This is pertinent because it was no secret that the Bears were likely in the wide receiver market in regards to the available free agents. That's less competition for guys like Vincent Jackson or Mike Wallace, on top of the other tier of receivers, like Josh Morgan. It's unlikely the Bears will commit a ton of resources to further shoring up the position with a clear No. 1 guy like Marshall in the mix.
There's still plenty to get in the way of the 49ers signing a guy - like the fact that Wallace would require a first-round pick, the Washington Redskins vomiting money all over the place and, of course, the fact that the 49ers still have some deficiencies in the secondary and on the offensive line.