DeForest Buckner has written two goodbyes, and the second one apologized

March 16, 2020#

The first letter went up on a Monday afternoon in March, at 2:39 Pacific time, on Instagram. DeForest Buckner was one day short of his 26th birthday. The trade had been reported that day. He had played four seasons for San Francisco, and he would not play a fifth.

"I want to thank the 49ers Organization for taking a chance on me 4 years ago," it began.

Most of what followed was the kind of list people make when they are leaving a place, and he made it plainly. "It's been one hell of a journey, from 2-14 my rookie year to the Super Bowl this past season." Then: "Win or Lose I was always proud to wear the Red and Gold." He thanked coaches, teammates, staff and fans in the Bay Area "for helping me grow as a man, friend, and teammate." He wrote that the Faithful would always have a special place in his heart.

The last two sentences were about the next place. "Colts Nation, I can't wait to get this thing rollin! I'm bringing everything I got to Indy!!"

The club made it official two days later, on Wednesday, March 18. Buckner went to Indianapolis for the Colts' first-round pick, 13th overall, in the draft that April. The release carried a statement from John Lynch. "It has truly been a privilege to work with DeFo these last three years," the general manager said, "and he deserves a great deal of credit for helping us to build the foundation of this team and reestablish a championship culture."

The same release counted it out. Four seasons. Sixty-three games, and he started every one of them. Twenty-eight and a half sacks. In 2019 he was a second-team All-Pro, and the team gave him the Bill Walsh Award, which goes to the 49er who best represents the standard Walsh set.

The Super Bowl had been 43 days before the letter.

October 20, 2019#

He is from Waianae, on the west side of Oahu, and he went to Oregon, and the 49ers took him seventh in the 2016 draft. He is six feet seven. Those are the facts a roster page carries, and they do not tell you much about what four seasons in San Francisco looked like.

There is a photograph from the last of those seasons. It was taken at Washington on October 20, 2019, a Sunday. It is raining. The stands behind the field are a wall of ponchos and rain jackets, a lot of them yellow. A Washington ball carrier is cutting across the field with the ball, and 49ers in white are closing on him. Buckner is the one in the middle of the picture, with an arm already out toward him.

The 49ers won that game 9-0. The box score gives him six tackles and three of them solo. They were 6-0 that night. They finished 13-3 and went to Miami.

October 24, 2021#

He came back to Santa Clara once as an opponent, on a Sunday night in October 2021, and it rained then too, hard enough that the weather was the story going in. Indianapolis won, 30-18.

With nine seconds left he got to the quarterback. The play-by-play reads: "J.Garoppolo sacked at SF 49 for -4 yards (D.Buckner)."

He talked about it afterward, in comments carried by NBC Sports Bay Area the next morning. "It was definitely personal for me, you know? I wasn't trying to get too high or too low throughout the week, but it meant a lot." And then: "Life went full circle, I like to say. This will be a great plane ride back, for sure."

He was 27. He had been named a first-team All-Pro the season before, his first in Indianapolis.

December 31, 2025#

The Colts count his time there as seven seasons, 2020 through 2026, and the numbers they published on Tuesday are the numbers of a man who stayed and worked. Ninety-five games. Ninety starts. Forty-seven sacks, 122 hits on the quarterback, 63 tackles for a loss. First-team All-Pro in 2020. The Pro Bowl in 2021 and again in 2023.

In those seven seasons Indianapolis played one playoff game. It was at Buffalo on January 9, 2021, in his first season there, and the Colts lost it 27-24.

His 2025 season ended in surgery on his neck. The Colts give the date as New Year's Eve. He had played 10 games.

He came back. He was 32 in March. In the first seven games of 2026 he had four sacks, which was more than any player on the 49ers had at the time of the trade. The Colts won two of those seven. They lost at Pittsburgh, then at home to Tennessee, then 16-10 at Minnesota on Sunday. Their general manager, Chris Ballard, the man who traded the 13th pick for him in 2020, was fired. On Tuesday the Colts traded Quenton Nelson to Seattle, and they sent Buckner back to San Francisco for a fourth-round pick in 2027.

October 28, 2026#

The second letter went up on Wednesday morning, on Instagram, the same place as the first.

"Forever grateful to the Indianapolis Colts Organization and Irsay family for blessing me with the opportunity to wear the Horseshoe," it began. "These past 6 and a half years have been full of blessings. My family and I are proud to have called Indy our home!" He wrote about the friendships he had made "inside the building and out in the community."

Then he wrote, "I'm sorry we couldn't get the job done, but just know that I poured my heart and soul into the organization and the community the best way I knew how to."

The first letter thanked a team for a chance. The second apologized to one for a result. The man who wrote the first was 25 and had just been traded away from a team that had been to the Super Bowl six weeks before. The man who wrote the second had stayed six and a half years in a place that had wanted him enough to give up a first-round pick, and had played in one playoff game there. He did not write that the result was anyone else's. He wrote "we."

The first letter ended by looking at the next place. The second ended "God Bless!" and his number.

February 2, 2020#

The next place is the old one, and much of it is where he left it.

Kyle Shanahan is still the coach and Lynch is still the general manager. Six men who appear in the 49ers' box score from Super Bowl LIV are on the roster this week: George Kittle, Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, Kyle Juszczyk, Deebo Samuel and Dre Greenlaw. The team is 6-1.

That Super Bowl was played at Hard Rock Stadium, in Miami Gardens, on the first Sunday in February. San Francisco led Kansas City 20-10 going into the fourth quarter.

At 13:33 of that quarter, on first down at the 49ers' 27, Buckner sacked Patrick Mahomes for a loss of nine yards. Kansas City threw an interception two plays later.

At 7:13, the Chiefs had third down and 15 at their own 35. Mahomes threw deep to the left for Tyreek Hill, and Hill caught it for 44 yards. The play-by-play credits Buckner with a hit on Mahomes on the play.

Kansas City scored touchdowns on its next three possessions and won 31-20. The hit on third-and-15 is the last time his name appears in the play-by-play of a game he played for the 49ers.

The Raiders come to Levi's Stadium on Sunday, November 8. It will be 2,471 days since that night in Miami.

Sources: 49ers.com, "49ers Trade Defensive Lineman DeForest Buckner," March 18, 2020 (trade terms, Lynch statement, career totals, 2019 honors, and the embedded Instagram post of March 16, 2020); Colts.com, "Colts acquire 2027 fourth-round pick in exchange for DT DeForest Buckner," October 27, 2026 (Colts career totals, honors, neck surgery, the Nelson trade); Buckner's Instagram post of October 28, 2026, as carried by 49ers Webzone and EssentiallySports the same day; NBC Sports Bay Area, Dalton Johnson, October 25, 2021 (Buckner's postgame remarks of October 24, 2021, and the rain); ESPN box scores and play-by-play for Super Bowl LIV (February 2, 2020), San Francisco at Washington (October 20, 2019) and Indianapolis at San Francisco (October 24, 2021); ESPN season statistics, schedules, postseason results and rosters; the 49ers' roster page.