Weakened market fruitful for 49ers
The 49ers got the band back together.
But not all their returning band members are singing a happy tune.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch noted Monday the freeagency period went far better than they expected. The 49ers entered fearing their roster might be notably weakened by their players signing elsewhere, but the weak freeagent market meant many returned after failing to cash in.
The 49ers retained seven starters, paying a premium for a few. Pro Bowl fullback Kyle
Juszczyk retained his title as the highestpaid player at his position. And Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams became the NFL’s highestpaid offensive lineman.
Among the other five returning starters, however, four signed oneyear deals. And two of them, safety Jaquiski Tartt and nickel corner K’Waun Williams, came back on surprisingly modest contracts. Tartt signed a veteranminimum deal with a $990,000 base salary. Williams, one of the NFL’s best slot corners, will earn a $2.24 million base salary in 2021, which is just $90,000 more than he pocketed in 2020.
Recognizing that some of their returnees failed to cash in, Shanahan and Lynch were sensitive when it came to detailing their good fortune after the salary cap fell by $15.6 million per team because of lost revenue from the pandemicimpacted 2020 season.
“It was unfortunate,” Shanahan said. “I felt bad for a lot of those guys — just because of how this all panned out this year with the salary cap hurting a lot of people.”
Lynch explained the 49ers entered free agency with a list of players they planned to make a strong push to retain. They didn’t imagine they would be able to afford the players they expected to sign multiyear deals elsewhere.
“You have to say, ‘OK, we’re going to try to get these guys (signed). (And) these guys might outprice themselves for what we can do,’ ” Lynch said. “Unfortunately for those guys, this was a weird year where the cap came down drastically, and there were a lot of players left out there. And the hard thing is when players have performed and then that market’s not there.”
Shanahan and Lynch said their ability to keep so many starters, along with adding others such as Pro Bowl center Alex Mack, influenced their decision to keep their mostdiscussed starter: quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Among the various QB scenarios they discussed this offseason, one involved trading Garoppolo and filling his spot with the college prospect they planned to trade up for in the draft. The 49ers began trade discussions in early March, about two weeks before the start of free agency, before finalizing their deal with the Dolphins on Friday to move up nine spots to No. 3. Before that deal was reached, their successful free agency made them reconsider: Did they want to entrust a team they expect to be a Super Bowl contender to a rookie QB?
“You don’t know exactly what type of team you’re going to have through” free agency, Shanahan said. “I guess when the dust settles and we signed a bunch of our guys back and you feel you’ve got a team — does that change how you feel about going to get a rookie quarterback? It might a little bit, as far as that (season opener) or that season coming up.”
Before free agency, the 49ers thought Garoppolo’s contract — he will count $26.4 million against this season’s salary cap — might become prohibitive this offseason. But thanks, in part, to contract restructures for center Weston Richburg and pass rusher Dee Ford that created more than $18 million in cap space, they aren’t feeling a financial squeeze. The 49ers still have $19.5 million in cap space, the ninth most in the NFL, according to OverTheCap.com.
Lynch said their cap situation helped crystallize their plan: Trade up to No. 3 … and keep Garoppolo, at least for now. The 49ers haven’t ruled out trading Garoppolo if they get a great offer, or if the rookie develops quickly in 2021.
“We went to ownership and said, ‘Hey, things are looking good,’ ” Lynch said. “We’d like to make this (trade), but we also don’t want to say goodbye to Jimmy. We think Jimmy — we’ve shown we can get to a Super Bowl with him.’ ”
The 49ers clearly have emerged from free agency with great optimism regarding the coming season.
However, some of their returnees have emerged already thinking about 2022, when the salary cap will rise.
“I hope so,” K’Waun Williams said when asked about a potentially more robust market. “I’ll hopefully play a healthy full season and see where it lies. Hopefully, it’s with the 49ers, but, hey, I’m just going to play my game.”