WR Green could solve the 49ers’ biggest problem
The 49ers’ roster is teeming with talent, but there’s one position group that could prove to be the team’s Achilles heel as it tries to go back to — and this time win — the Super Bowl.
The Niners’ wide receivers are young, dynamic and could have a great season in 2020. But injuries, inexperience and an offense that demands as much from that position as any in the NFL could also undercut the unit’s potential.
It’s hard to envision a season where Deebo Samuel’s Jones fracture isn’t a persistent issue. He was set to move into the 49ers’ top receiving role, but his injury is a persnickety one, and there was no guarantee he’d be able to make the jump before his foot broke.
It’s also hard to see Kendrick Bourne breaking out as a top option in the 49ers’ offense. His play is on an upward trajectory — it could happen — but it’s tough to bank on something that we’ve never seen.
How stunted will first-round pick Brandon Aiyuk’s development be without all the offseason practices rookies usually receive, and likely without a normal training camp this summer? It’d be presumptuous to think he could be an everydown player by Week 1, or even Week 8.
Can Jalen Hurd even play? Dante Pettis might have answered that same question last year in a negative way. And while Travis Benjamin and Trent Taylor are nice players,
they are not top options in a passing game — not if you want to win a championship, at least.
Given all the question marks out wide with camp scheduled to start in a few days, the Niners’ decision to let Emmanuel Sanders walk in free agency is looking less and less shrewd.
But there could be a solution — a panacea — to the Niners’ possible shortcoming at one of the most important positions in the game: Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green.
The seven-time Pro Bowler was franchise tagged by Cincinnati this offseason, but has, to date, not signed the one-year contract. According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Bengals aren’t sure if he ever will sign that tender, worth an estimated $17.9 million.
And until Green signs the tender, he is technically not under contract. That means he cannot be traded, but he also cannot be fined for not reporting to Bengals training camp.
We saw a similar scenario play out last year with then-Texans defensive end Jadeveon Clowney. Eventually, the Texans and Seahawks worked out a trade. Clowney signed the tender to ratify it.
The Bengals might be in the same kind of spot the Texans were with Clowney. The Niners would be foolish to not try to mimic the Seahawks in this situation.
Green has battled injuries the last two years, but if he’s healthy, he would certainly fill that now-vacant No. 1 receiver role. Did I mention that he went to the Pro Bowl for seven straight seasons?
This Green thought exercise comes with a caveat: none of it can happen if the 49ers sign George Kittle to a new contract that provides him a pay increase starting this season. And that, of course, should be the team’s No. 1 priority at the moment.
But if the Niners — or Kittle — decide to table contract negotiations until the end of the year or to sign a deal that doesn’t kick in until 2021, the team should have roughly $12 million in cap space going into the season.
With the Raiders now in a beautiful new stadium in Las Vegas, the Bengals are now the NFL’s unquestioned paupers. Cincinnati’s cheapness is so wellestablished Pro Football Talk even suggested that they might rescind the franchise tag tender from Green and let him walk in free agency.
That, of course, would be a boon for the 49ers.
It’s highly unlikely that Green would command his franchise-tag value on the open market.
But if the Bengals are smart, they would try to get something — anything — back for a receiver who, when healthy, is one of the league’s best.
It wouldn’t cost the Niners much. Clowney cost the Seahawks a thirdround pick and two depth players last year — a fair price for an impact rental player. (Green, like Clowney, would have to play the season on the oneyear franchise tag.)
Yes, the Niners need to hoard draft capital, as the team’s expenses have put an even larger premium on the cheap talent that comes from the college ranks, and they already traded away their third-round pick in the 2021 draft for Trent Williams, but adding the kind of player the team needs most while its Super Bowl window is wide open is worth giving away a second-day draft pick.
And while the Niners would need to offload $6 million — either to the Bengals in a trade or, the more difficult option, through cutting players — it’s a deal that can be made. The Niners have a smorgasbord of players to trade to the Bengals to make the salaries work: Solomon Thomas ($4.3 million in cap savings if traded), Bourne ($3.25 million), Tom Compton ($2.5 million), Ahkello Witherspoon ($2.1 million), Ross Dwelley ($750,000), and Marcell Harris ($750,000) would all have value to the Niners in a trade and to the Bengals as rotation players in 2020.
Maybe it’s pie-in-thesky. Maybe it’s a moot point because the Niners sign Kittle or the Bengals sign Green. Maybe the 49ers don’t see the wide receiver depth chart as an issue.
But right here, right now, from my perspective, the Niners have an issue, and a solution — a real, bona fide solution — might be a phone call away.