The San Francisco 49ers didn’t go big at the trade deadline, but they may have gone smart. Hours before Tuesday’s cutoff, John Lynch sent a 2027 sixth-round pick to Indianapolis for Keenan Allen.

It was his second deal with the rebuilding Colts in three weeks, after the late-October trade that brought DeForest Buckner back to the Bay.

For a 7-1 team whose receiver room has turned into a training-room roll call, adding a six-time Pro Bowler for a Day 3 pick is the kind of low-risk, high-floor move contenders make when they know what they need.

Allen’s stay in Indianapolis was modest as he went unsigned until mid-August before taking a one-year deal worth up to $8.32 million and reuniting with Shane Steichen, his former play-caller with the Chargers.

Steichen has been leaning on multiple tight-end sets, which meant fewer snaps for Allen than he was used to in Los Angeles.

He missed a game in September, and in eight appearances, he caught 40 passes for 351 yards and one touchdown. 

That's under nine yards per catch, mostly short targets that moved the chains for an offense going nowhere.

That lighter workload helps the 49ers. Allen is 34, and San Francisco isn’t asking him to be a No. 1 receiver.

It’s asking him to show up in late November and January with fresh legs and the same sharp route-running that made him one of the league’s best third-down options for a decade.

Allen has 1,095 career receptions, the eighth-most in NFL history and the most of any active receiver.

He knows how to beat coverage, and because the Colts never ran him into the ground, he has plenty left for a playoff push.

Mike Evans has missed time with Achilles tendinitis, and De’Zhaun Stribling, Deebo Samuel, Demarcus Robinson, and Christian Kirk have all spent stretches on the sideline.

With Samuel nearing a return, San Francisco could face Dallas on Sunday with Robinson, Jordan Watkins, Samuel, and Allen as its top four.

That gives Brock Purdy a reliable veteran who can play outside or in the slot, and a Kyle Shanahan offense that already gets plenty from George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey doesn’t need him to do more than that.

Before the NFL, he starred at Cal in Berkeley for three seasons, and for much of that time, he caught passes from his half-brother, quarterback Zach Maynard.

His 2011 season is still one of the best in program history: 98 catches for 1,343 yards, which was second on Cal’s single-season list at the time, plus team offensive MVP honors.

He left Cal as the school’s all-time receptions leader with 205, and the then-San Diego Chargers drafted him in the third round in 2013.

More than a decade later, he’s back in the Bay Area chasing the one thing his résumé still lacks.