A benefit of winning
49ers: Team’s growth seen with fewer needs to fill this offseason
A year after taking a frenzied approach to free agency, the 49ers started their transaction-palooza earlier this year.
Leading up to the first day of the league year Wednesday — a period commonly known as “pre-agency” — they have crossed major items off their offseason shopping list: They’ve signed their quarterback of the future ( Jimmy Garoppolo) and a cornerback with a decorated past (Richard Sherman), and agreed to contract extensions with three potential starters, center Daniel Kilgore, wide receiver Marquise Goodwin and pass rusher Cassius Marsh, as well as swing tackle Garry Gilliam.
They’ve been unquestionably busy, which
raises the question: Now what?
The answer will arrive this week, but it’s safe to say the 49ers won’t replicate last year, when they signed seven players on the first day of free agency and added four more on Day 2.
Even before the 49ers agreed to terms with Sherman, addressing perhaps the weakest position on their roster, general manager John Lynch said he wasn’t expecting a seven-man, first-day blur.
“I don’t think it will be that volume,” Lynch said. “That volume, I don’t know if was a record, it felt like it. That was hectic, and active and fun and all those things, and I felt like we improved our team greatly at some spots we frankly needed it. Fortunately, we had a lot of young players play and play well for us that we think are part of our future. I think we’ll be a little more selective.”
In other words, after being aggressive, the 49ers will be, to borrow Lynch’s phrase, “aggressively prudent.”
And that approach makes sense, given the dramatic transformation of their roster — and their outlook — over the past 12 months.
Unlike last year, when Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan were taking over a 2-14 team made up of players they didn’t select, the 49ers will start free agency with many handpicked players in place: Sixty-three of the 85 players on the roster have been acquired by the new regime, a number that will increase after free agency.
The makeover, with no addition bigger than the trade for a certain franchise quarterback, has made them a trendy 2018 playoff pick after their 1-10 start was followed by a Garoppolo fueled 5-0 finish.
Their swift transformation from dumpster fire to destination was neatly captured by Sherman’s one-team free-agent tour. On Friday, the day he was released by the Seahawks, the Super Bowl champion who has missed the playoffs once in his seven-year career told a Seattle radio station he wanted to sign with a “contender.” By Saturday, he had joined the 49ers.
But all of this doesn’t mean the 49ers are in stand-pat mode entering free agency.
They have obvious needs for pass-rush help, cornerback depth and more competition for guards Laken Tomlinson and Joshua Garnett. They lack a No. 1 wide receiver and will need to address their runningback corps if Carlos Hyde, a pending free agent, signs elsewhere. Finally, depending on their view of Reuben Foster’s future after two offseason arrests, an inside linebacker might be targeted.
However, this crop of free agents is widely viewed as weak, particularly when it comes to help with the pass rushers, an area that has clearly become the 49ers’ biggest shortcoming.
There is a premium placed on players who can harass quarterbacks, and Lynch recently bemoaned the paucity of proven pass rushers in free agency. Last year, he noted, the 49ers studied Arizona’s Chandler Jones, the Chargers’ Melvin Ingram and the Giants’ Jason Pierre-Paul, but they were retained with franchise tags before free agency. This year, the same situation unfolded with Dallas’ DeMarcus Lawrence and Detroit’s Ziggy Ansah.
At wide receiver, the presence of Pierre Garcon and last year’s emergence of Goodwin and rookie Trent Taylor gives the 49ers a competent core.
However, none of those three receivers is taller than 6 feet, and the lack of height could account for some of their redzone struggles in 2017: The 49ers scored touchdowns on 47 percent of their trips to the red zone, which ranked 27th in the NFL (the figure was 46 percent in Garoppolo’s five starts).
The top free-agent wideout, Jacksonville’s Allen Robinson, 24, is coming off a torn ACL he sustained in last year’s season opener. But he had 201 catches for 2,831 yards and 22 touchdowns in his first three seasons and, at 6-3 and 211 pounds, is an inviting red-zone target: Eighteen of his touchdowns have come inside the 16-yard line, with nine inside the 6.
At running back, New England’s Dion Lewis and Cleveland’s Isaiah Crowell are among the top options, but the 49ers might not view the position as a pressing need in free agency. They have nine draft picks, and Lynch recently said this year’s draft is fairly well stocked at running back.
The only other position Lynch mentioned when asked about strong areas of the draft was quarterback, which, of course, is no longer a need.
Last year, during their initial free-agent flurry, the 49ers signed two quarterbacks, Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley, both no longer on the roster.
For the 49ers, who can now afford to be more selective, it’s just one example of how much has changed recently, for the better.