2020 Offseason

[thesack12]

If they don't bring Sanders back, WR is going to be a huge concern. The free agent WR crop is very poor also.

That being the case, any interest in bringing in Eric Ebron as an oversized slot receiver?

I'm all for bringing Sanders back on a team-friendly deal. Sounds like he really enjoyed the team culture here so he may be willing to take a slight discount to return.

But our challenge is that we don't have a speed receiver who can stretch the defense and allow guys like Kittle, Sanders, Deebo, Hurd and Bourne work their crossing routes underneath. Hurd is supposed to be our over-sized slot receiver. Deebo can play either outside or the slot but he is probably better in slot to take advantage of his strength and physicality. At Sanders' age, he is also probably better suited for the slot than outside and Taylor, if he returns, is strictly a slot guy. Goodwin was supposed to be that speed merchant on the outside but we saw how that worked out. Among our current receivers, Deebo is probably our fastest guy with a 4.48 40 at his combine (Sanders ran a 4.41 but that was 10 years ago!). We saw the kind of pressure the Chiefs can put on a defense with a bunch of guys who can run a 4.3 (or 4.2 in Hill's case).

Without a speed guy on the outside, Jimmy will find the short and intermediate routes that he is comfortable with congested with safeties. So how long do we keep Pettis to just waste one of our receiver spots on instead of getting the speed guy we are lacking?

I'm 100% with you, I'm all for bringing Sanders back in. Its just a matter of price, and like I said in another thread awhile back that if it becomes an either or type thing, I would bring back Sanders over Armstead.

I also agree that speed is the biggest missing ingredient from the recieving corps. You are also right in they have a lot of guys that are better suited on the inside. The problem I just don't know how they are going to be able to improve the receiving corps and/or infuse some speed into the equation. The WR free agent pool is super underwhelming, and Frisco is short on cap space anyways. They are also short on draft capital as well (no day 2 picks), and I don't think they can use another draft pick on a WR. Even if they do, this team needs help now so relying on a late round pick to play a key role next year is probably futile. I highly doubt they use #31 on a WR.

So as of this moment, the only potential options to infuse some speed I can see are 1) Bring back Goodwin on a cheap deal. Him and Jimmy had a pretty solid connection going in 2017. This year Marquise was nagged by injuries and had a couple impactful personal things going on in his life. Maybe next season would be better. 2) I heard that Washington is looking to cut Paul Richardson. I'm not real high on him, but he is capable of stretching the field with speed and should come cheaply.

So my Ebron idea stems from just trying to get some receiving talent into the building. As you mentioned he is redundant with Hurd, but again we really don't know what we have in Hurd and for all intents and purposes he will be a rookie next season.

Either way, we can't expect or even legitimately hope for substantial improvement from Jimmy G by not upgrading his weapon cache. The team would definitely not be doing him any favors if they let Sanders go and don't bring in anything else of substance. If you want to see Jimmy improve, the best way to do that is improve his supporting cast.

[arich35]

Not sure how true this is or not but it was posted on Twitter last night from some 49ersSpin account

Kwon Alexander restructured his deal having his 2020 salary lowered to $975,000. That would free up 10M in salary cap.

I have no idea where he got the info from, I can't find any credible source with the info

[49er4life1979]

I don’t necessarily want Sanders back if it means that we can’t keep our defense together. I want us to spend our money on that and continue to beef our WR’s through the draft.

One guy that I like is Jalen Reagor from TCU. He’s a speedster who could come in immediately and become our home run threat In KR/PR. He also has potential to develop into a very nice receiver and can take the top off the defense which we desperately need. We lack that homer in threat at WR.

Agreed. With his age, should be no longer than a 2 year deal (always team friendly of course). WR position is very deep in this year's draft...I think they should trade back/out of the 1st round and acquire extra picks. Get a WR, CB, OL, another TE.

[CrimsonCrew]

Not sure how true this is or not but it was posted on Twitter last night from some 49ersSpin account

Kwon Alexander restructured his deal having his 2020 salary lowered to $975,000. That would free up 10M in salary cap.

I have no idea where he got the info from, I can't find any credible source with the info

That seems all but impossible. I could see him taking some pay cut, but no way a cut like that unless there's something like it's divided into game checks and is just a guard against injury - and even then he wouldn't have all that much motivation to do something that drastic.

[CrimsonCrew]

I don’t necessarily want Sanders back if it means that we can’t keep our defense together. I want us to spend our money on that and continue to beef our WR’s through the draft.

One guy that I like is Jalen Reagor from TCU. He’s a speedster who could come in immediately and become our home run threat In KR/PR. He also has potential to develop into a very nice receiver and can take the top off the defense which we desperately need. We lack that homer in threat at WR.

Agreed. With his age, should be no longer than a 2 year deal (always team friendly of course). WR position is very deep in this year's draft...I think they should trade back/out of the 1st round and acquire extra picks. Get a WR, CB, OL, another TE.

I am very much on board to trade back in this one. We need more draft capital. If we could pick up an extra third rounder or something like that (late-first round picks have more value than early second because of the fifth-year option, so hopefully we can get a good offer), we need to do it. It would be great to come out of this draft with 1-2 guys who could develop into starters.

I'm frustrated as can be with the WR position. We have poured so many resources into it, and it's still only mediocre at best. Big contract for Garcon (could have gotten Stephon Gilmore for just a bit more), solid extension for Goodwin, a second-and-third round pick for Pettis (including trading away the pick that was used on Kamara), a very high second for Samuel, a very high third for Hurd. A third and fourth for Sanders. And we're still thin there going into this offseason. It's surprising, given Shanahan's offensive eye. And we've had some bad injury luck with guys like Garcon, Goodwin, and Taylor. Still, we really needed more from what we've dedicated to the position.

The biggest concern for me is not necessarily speed per se. We need a guy like Sanders who has the speed to stretch the field, but Garoppolo hasn't shown he can exploit elite deep speed anyway. But if Sanders leaves, I don't know who plays outside. Samuel has shown he can play outside, but basically all of our other guys are better-suited from the slot. We need Pettis to bounce back next year and contribute as a WR and on STs. You can usually find unrefined speed guys later in the draft, so I'd look for one of those.

I'm frustrated that I was calling for Terry McLaurin if we went WR in the 3rd, and he'd be a nice fit for what we need.

[arich35]

Not sure how true this is or not but it was posted on Twitter last night from some 49ersSpin account

Kwon Alexander restructured his deal having his 2020 salary lowered to $975,000. That would free up 10M in salary cap.

I have no idea where he got the info from, I can't find any credible source with the info

That seems all but impossible. I could see him taking some pay cut, but no way a cut like that unless there's something like it's divided into game checks and is just a guard against injury - and even then he wouldn't have all that much motivation to do something that drastic.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/kwon-alexander-16850/

According to this his base is $976,325, I am not sure what the other stuff means though

[CrimsonCrew]

Not sure how true this is or not but it was posted on Twitter last night from some 49ersSpin account

Kwon Alexander restructured his deal having his 2020 salary lowered to $975,000. That would free up 10M in salary cap.

I have no idea where he got the info from, I can't find any credible source with the info

That seems all but impossible. I could see him taking some pay cut, but no way a cut like that unless there's something like it's divided into game checks and is just a guard against injury - and even then he wouldn't have all that much motivation to do something that drastic.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/kwon-alexander-16850/

According to this his base is $976,325, I am not sure what the other stuff means though

Looking at that, it would be hard to keep him past next year regardless. He isn't worth nearly $16 million. The SB was a particularly rough game for him, but he's got to be an impact player to earn anything close to that money.

[arich35]

That seems all but impossible. I could see him taking some pay cut, but no way a cut like that unless there's something like it's divided into game checks and is just a guard against injury - and even then he wouldn't have all that much motivation to do something that drastic.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/kwon-alexander-16850/

According to this his base is $976,325, I am not sure what the other stuff means though

Looking at that, it would be hard to keep him past next year regardless. He isn't worth nearly $16 million. The SB was a particularly rough game for him, but he's got to be an impact player to earn anything close to that money.

But what do the numbers mean for next year and the cap? Did we really gain 9M+

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

EMMANUEL SANDERS
WR, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

Impending free agent Emmanuel Sanders is open to re-signing with the 49ers.

Sanders played through a rib injury for most of the second half of the season. Even at less than full health, the 49ers' offense took a step forward after trading for him in Week 8, so it makes sense for them to bring him back. With the 49ers having one of the worst cap situations in the league, Sanders would likely need to accept a team-friendly deal to stay in San Francisco.
SOURCE: Nick Wagoner on Twitter

Feb 8, 2020, 9:10 AM ET

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

DEE FORD
DL, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

49ers GM John Lynch doesn’t expect DE Dee Ford (knee) to need offseason surgery.

Ford wasn't close to 100 percent last season, playing just 22 percent of snaps in a part-time role. He also dealt with a hamstring injury for most of the second half. The 49ers are hoping Ford can get healthy through rest and rehab this offseason. He's set to make $16.1 million in the second season of a five-year deal.
SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle

Feb 8, 2020, 9:23 AM ET

[thesack12]

Ford $15.8 mil
Buckner $14.3 mil
Thomas $8.9 mil
Bosa $7.6 mil


That is already $47 mil invested in the D Line which is 22% of the salary cap tied up in 4 players.

Armstead's tag # will be $19.3 or $15.5 depending on whether they slot him as a DE or DT. We'll take the lower end of that and add it to the above..

With an Armstead franchise tag that would raise the DLine cap #'s to $63 mil and over 30% of the salary cap tied up into 5 players along the DLine.

Now obviously Thomas isn't a good player, and in all likelihood will either be gone or have his cap # lowered significantly. But neither of those things are going to happen this season.

I honestly don't see how the team can expect to reamain a legit contender while tying up 30% of their cap on the DLine. The DLine is good, like really good, but they aren't good enough to justify that. Having that money tied up in that position group is going to create major holes/weaknesses in other position groups on the team, namely WR.

[NinerSickness]

Now obviously Thomas isn't a good player,

Neither was Armstead until he got on the contract-year juice.

Nothing a little HGH can't fix.

[wco81]

Hoping the cap goes up a lot.

[NinerSickness]

So consider this possibility: the Niners got really lucky to get as far as they did this year. Seattle had their number, but they were injured at the wrong time.

Also, the Saints were a pretty scary team who blew it in the wildcard round (I think Brees was banged up).

The OL failed when the chips were down, and so did the secondary. Also, the Niners don't have a legit #1 WR threat.

I think the team needs a bigger overhaul than people want to admit, and they should've started last offseason instead of going with what the team had.

[Dodub]

I’ve been reading up and it appears that Kwon did indeed restructure to create 10m in cap room. The cap should go up another 10m which would give us 20m cap space between those two things. We already had roughly 6m in space so that puts us around 26m.

If we cut McKinnion, Goodwin and Nzeocha, that should give us 10m more.

Considering that Buckner’s deal wouldn’t count against the 2020 cap any more than it already would, we could easily extend Buckner and Kittle while resigning AA and Ward.

[NinerSickness]

I’ve been reading up and it appears that Kwon did indeed restructure to create 10m in cap room. The cap should go up another 10m which would give us 20m cap space between those two things. We already had roughly 6m in space so that puts us around 26m.

Crap. They restructured Kwon & Richburg when they should've cut them.

When you have a player making a s**t load of money and a backup playing just as well who makes nothing, you go with the backup and spend the money on a friggn' CB & possibly a #1 WR.

...And a guard, but Mike Person has pictures of John Lynch with a male prostitute, so his job is frustratingly safe.

[Dodub]

I’ve been reading up and it appears that Kwon did indeed restructure to create 10m in cap room. The cap should go up another 10m which would give us 20m cap space between those two things. We already had roughly 6m in space so that puts us around 26m.

Crap. They restructured Kwon & Richburg when they should've cut them.

When you have a player making a s**t load of money and a backup playing just as well who makes nothing, you go with the backup and spend the money on a friggn' CB & possibly a #1 WR.

...And a guard, but Mike Person has pictures of John Lynch with a male prostitute, so his job is frustratingly safe.

Kwon will likely get cut next year. Richburg too. CB’s and WR’s cost way too much money to realistically pursue this offseason even IF we were to cut those two players.

We were top 5 in the NFL on both offense and defense so I don’t at all agree that a roster overhaul is needed. Stay the course and add through the draft. Let guys like Hurd get healthy.

[NinerSickness]

CB’s and WR’s cost way too much money to realistically pursue this offseason even IF we were to cut those two players.

Maybe both, but those 2 guys alone would leave enough room to sign a great CB. And there are ways to do both.

...Although it's way more important to get a friggn' guard than a WR IMO. They could restructure Goodwin and go with him as a deep threat. But continuing to start Mike friggn' Person is insane. I also say they should trade McGlinchey. I'm really starting to not be able to stand that guy.

Priority #1: get a CB

Priority #2: rebuild that OL

If there's any money left, get some skill-position players.

[Dodub]

https://ninernoise.com/2020/02/07/49ers-3-players-cut-create-cap-space-2020/amp/

[NinerSickness]

https://ninernoise.com/2020/02/07/49ers-3-players-cut-create-cap-space-2020/amp/

No. 3: Offensive Guard Mike Person