San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Once free agency begins, 49ers will wait on sidelines
The NFL remains tentatively open for business, but don’t be surprised if the 49ers don’t do much shopping should the show go on this week.
The league, amid the coronavirus pandemic, had made no changes to the start of free agency as of Saturday: The league year was still scheduled to begin Wednesday with the two-day legal-tampering period preceding it in which teams can begin negotiating with player agents.
There is talk of altering the schedule given the optics of handing out mega-contracts during a global crisis, along with the matter of conducting free-agent visits and physicals that require plane travel.
But this can be safely said: Whenever free agency starts, the 49ers probably will be
Head coach Kyle Shanahan (left) and general manager John Lynch probably won’t be making any big free-agent signings.
spectators in the first furious days before picking through the bargain bin.
The 49ers are projected to have about $14.6 million in salary cap space, the fifth lowest in the NFL, according to OverTheCap.com, and that could vanish if they accomplish their goal of retaining defensive lineman Arik Armstead.
Consider: If they can’t strike a last-minute, long-term deal with Armstead, an unrestricted free agent, they could apply the franchise tag, which would pay him around $19 million. The deadline to apply the tag is 8:59 a.m. Monday.
Of course, that’s just one potentially ultra-expensive item on their to-do list. They also want to sign two of their best players, tight end George Kittle and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, to long-term extensions.
And they would also like to re-sign wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders and free safety Jimmie Ward, although both players are likely to reach the open market. Sanders, via social media, said Monday he’d yet to engage in contract talks with the team.
In February, four days after Super Bowl LIV, general manager John Lynch acknowledged the 49ers wouldn’t be extending their streak of doling out millions in March to bring in new players.
In 2017, for example, they made Kyle Juszczyk the league’s highest-paid fullback and gave bigmoney deals to wide receiver Pierre Garcon and linebacker Malcolm Smith. In 2018 they made large investments in cornerback Richard Sherman, center Weston Richburg and running back Jerick McKinnon. Last year they traded for pass rusher Dee Ford and signed him to a fiveyear, $85 million contract.
“Those days aren’t happening anymore,” Lynch said. “We can’t go to the grocery store and say, ‘I’ll have that, I’ll have that, I’ll have that.’ It is more like, ‘I’ll have that, but I might have to put that back.’ There are trade-offs.”
Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan have repeatedly said the priority is to keep as much of the core together from last season’s team, which went 15-4 and had a 10-point lead midway through the final quarter of Super
Bowl LIV.
They are likely to trim around the edges in their effort to do that. They are reportedly trying to trade wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, who is unlikely to attract significant interest, and will almost certainly restructure McKinnon’s contract after a knee injury sidelined the running back for the past two seasons.
They could create around $8 million in cap space if they trade or release Goodwin — and significantly reduce McKinnon’s $6.5 million base salary for 2020.
The 49ers have prioritized keeping Armstead because he’s a key part of a dominant defensive line that was the biggest reason for last season’s turnaround. However, they could apply the franchise tag and trade him, which the Chiefs did last year when they dealt Ford to the 49ers. Such a move would give the 49ers a better chance to retain Sanders and Ward and would bolster their modest draft stash: Their 31st overall pick is their only selection in the first four rounds.
The majority of the 49ers’ current cap space was created last season when they restructured the contracts of Richburg and linebacker Kwon Alexander.
Lynch said at last month’s combine they were unlikely to do the same with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s deal, although a restructure would create about $20 million in cap space. However, it would also basically tie them to Garoppolo through 2022. The QB’s current deal allows them to release or trade him with little financial penalty until it expires.
Shanahan wasn’t speaking about Garoppolo last month, but he did note the 49ers’ desire to have flexibility in the future: In 2021, for example, Sherman is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent and linebacker Fred Warner will be eligible for an extension.
“Are you trying to sell the farm for one year or have your best chance over a two- to three-year span?” Shanahan said. “There’s so much stuff that goes on. There’s a lot of big decisions that need to be made.”