2021 49ers offseason

[CrimsonCrew]

Don't get me wrong, that's an "absolute earliest pick I would trade for X player" sort of scenario. If we did that, I'd feel like we overpaid. But Darnold has enough talent, and enough reason to question whether we've seen the real him during his NFL tenure, that it may be worth taking a shot if we haven't been able to address the position otherwise.

[CrimsonCrew]

Niners to make every effort to retain Juszczyk. Ugh. Look, I like a lot about Juice. He's a very good, and relatively unique player. But he plays a low-demand position, and he's paid literally twice what the next-priciest player at the position is paid. He's not such a difference maker that he warrants that. We could find someone else (hello, Ross Dwelley) to do what he does almost as well.

I'm all for bringing Juice back, but I'd need him to take a pay cut to do so. In our cap situation, I certainly would not get into a bidding war for him.

[Dodub]

Niners to make every effort to retain Juszczyk. Ugh. Look, I like a lot about Juice. He's a very good, and relatively unique player. But he plays a low-demand position, and he's paid literally twice what the next-priciest player at the position is paid. He's not such a difference maker that he warrants that. We could find someone else (hello, Ross Dwelley) to do what he does almost as well.

I'm all for bringing Juice back, but I'd need him to take a pay cut to do so. In our cap situation, I certainly would not get into a bidding war for him.

I disagree on him not being a bug difference maker. He is THE catalyst for our running game. Watch him at the point, we do so much off of him that he would be dearly missed.

[CrimsonCrew]

Niners to make every effort to retain Juszczyk. Ugh. Look, I like a lot about Juice. He's a very good, and relatively unique player. But he plays a low-demand position, and he's paid literally twice what the next-priciest player at the position is paid. He's not such a difference maker that he warrants that. We could find someone else (hello, Ross Dwelley) to do what he does almost as well.

I'm all for bringing Juice back, but I'd need him to take a pay cut to do so. In our cap situation, I certainly would not get into a bidding war for him.

I disagree on him not being a bug difference maker. He is THE catalyst for our running game. Watch him at the point, we do so much off of him that he would be dearly missed.

Don't get me wrong, I think he's a big difference maker. He's pretty clearly the most versatile player in the league at his position. But there is literally no other position where the top guy is paid twice what the next highest guy is paid - and that's on a now-outdated contract. The Niners value a position that most of the league does not. That SHOULD mean that they are able to maximize value at that position. We're not doing that at FB because we're paying Juice like a second-tier RB. And FB isn't even a full-time position in our offense. This past year, Juice played 43% of offensive snaps despite not missing a game. He had 19 receptions, and seems to be getting phased out of that aspect of the offense, even though he'll have one or two great catches a season.

Dodub, there's no doubt you have a better eye for FB talent than I do, but I have to think we could find a guy who can block almost as capably (Juice is a very sound blocker, but he's not a blow-you-up type of guy), who could also catch some passes, but who would cost literally 10-15% as much. This season will require hard choices, and one of those might be letting Juice walk. The eighth-highest paid FB in the league makes $800K a year. Jusczcyk will probably command closer to $6.5 million. I don't see how we can pay him, extend Williams, bring back even one of the CBs (except Moseley), and have cap space to do anything else.

Did I mention at some point that it was epically stupid to restructure Dee Ford? And Kwon Alexander?

[wco81]

More talk about 49ers drafting a QB.

This time moving up to #7 according to Kiper to draft Fields.

Ugh, not sold on Fields at all.

OK, do they save a lot of cap space by cutting Jimmy? Is that the strategy?

Because this team needs help in a lot of other positions, given the cap situation and all the free agents. So I don't know about giving up draft assets to draft a questionable QB prospect.

[CrimsonCrew]

More talk about 49ers drafting a QB.

This time moving up to #7 according to Kiper to draft Fields.

Ugh, not sold on Fields at all.

OK, do they save a lot of cap space by cutting Jimmy? Is that the strategy?

Because this team needs help in a lot of other positions, given the cap situation and all the free agents. So I don't know about giving up draft assets to draft a questionable QB prospect.

Very big savings if they cut Garoppolo. $23.6 million, I believe.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2021-nfl-free-agency-49ers-jimmy-garoppolo-among-25-potential-big-name-cap-casualties/

I'm not vehemently opposed to it if the FO likes one of the rookies a lot - even though my confidence in Kyle's eye for QBs has been shaken. The problem is that the savings don't help us unless we cut him before or early in FA and thus have the money available to spend. If we do that, then we're almost forced to trade up and take a rookie. That really hampers our negotiating power, and we could find ourselves in a real bind.

Having said that, I would consider another approach: cut or trade Garoppolo. Put those savings toward retaining Trent Williams and Verrett, a few other guys (my priorities, in no particular order, include DJ Jones, K'Waun Williams, Ronald Blair on the cheap, Jordan Reed if reasonable, and Emmanuel Moseley as a RFA). Trade back from 12 in the draft to the late teens or 20s and take a CB or OL. Add two or three OL in the first five rounds, along with at least two DBs. Take some late shots on WR and a DE opposite Bosa. Start Josh Rosen in 2021.

I realize that seems crazy, but in this offense, with an above-average OL, I think Rosen could have a bounce back and be good enough for us to be competitive, at least. The dude still has physical talent, but has basically been given up on by the NFL after one season on a bad AZ team and four (admittedly AWFUL) games for the Dolphins in which he faced NE (best scoring D, 2nd in passing yards), Dallas (11th scoring, 10th passing), SD (14th scoring, 5th passing), and WAS (27th scoring, 18 passing). That Miami team had 1,156 rushing yards TOTAL, and its leading rusher was Ryan Fitzpatrick with 243.

Gotta say, again, not at all expecting Rosen to become our next franchise QB, but it would have been really nice to have seen him play in our system a little bit this past year instead of, oh, I don't know, CJ Beathard. Kyle's irrational love of Beathard will go down as one of the oddest aspects of his 49ers coaching tenure. Thank God we passed on Mahomes and Watson because we were confident we could trade up and get that guy in the third. Ugh.

[wco81]

What's happening with the OTAs?

You'd hope the QB coach is working with Rosen right now, though maybe under the CBA, only OTAs are allowed for working with players?

That's under normal conditions. With the pandemic, all bets are off.

[CrimsonCrew]

I don't think coaches can work with players right now.

[CrimsonCrew]

Lots of buzz about Darnold these days. I'd be pretty disappointed with that, depending on what a trade would cost. If we're inclined to go in the "young, talented player, but bad to date" direction, we've already got a guy like that on our roster. I'd rather keep the draft pick and cap space and go with Rosen.

[Dodub]

Lots of buzz about Darnold these days. I'd be pretty disappointed with that, depending on what a trade would cost. If we're inclined to go in the "young, talented player, but bad to date" direction, we've already got a guy like that on our roster. I'd rather keep the draft pick an cap space and go with Rosen.

I agree, I have hesitation with Darnold as well. I do think that if anyone can help him reach his potential it’s Kyle. I would be a little bit meh about giving up a 2nd rounder for him as I think a 3rd is a better value. What intrigues me is the idea of Kyle having two young first round talents on the roster and have the ability to work with them both. It also would save tons on the cap and give us the ability to spend some money. I don’t know about you but I want Von Miller and possibly Trufant.

[CrimsonCrew]

Good conversation about Juszczyk in the March 3 podcast here, starting at the 35:30 mark:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/better-rivals-a-san-francisco-49ers-podcast/id526610855

I basically agree with them. I like Juice as a player, but I just find it hard to believe that we can't find a comparable contribution from a player who costs far less money. Especially as other teams just don't utilize the position the way we do. We should basically have our pick of the litter.

[GS Warriors 1]

Salary cap is set at $182.5M.

49ers receive 2 compensatory picks: 102 (Saleh) and 181 (Sanders)

[GS Warriors 1]

Due to cap credit adjustments and rollover, the 49ers will operate at a salary cap of $195.8M. They have approximately $26M in cap space.

The 49ers have 62 players under contract and 32 pending FA's. They have 28 roster slots open for a 90-man roster to begin training camp.

They still have the rights to the following FA's: CB Emmanuel Moseley (RFA), QB Nick Mullens (RFA), WR Shawn Pointdexter (ERFA), and OL Daniel Brunskill (ERFA).

[CrimsonCrew]

Updated cap space:

https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/

Very interesting to note that 12 of the 14 teams with the least amount of cap space, including 7 of the 8 teams that are currently over the cap, are NFC teams. Four NFC playoff teams from last year are over the cap and will have to trim rosters.

This is not a year to go for splash FA signings. They should absolutely try to re-sign Trent Williams, but other than that, I'm looking for mid-level players on bargain contracts. We should be able to sign some quality players on one-year deals this year. That's how I'd be looking to attack FA while our window is open.

[wco81]

I've read some chatter that if one of the two 2 tackles fall to #12, the 49ers might jump on one of them.

That would save a lot of money not having to give Williams a contract which starts at like $15 million a year or more on average.

They could give him a long-term deal to spread out the cap hit and hope the cap goes back up quickly. But he's not a spring chicken.

[CrimsonCrew]

I've read some chatter that if one of the two 2 tackles fall to #12, the 49ers might jump on one of them.

That would save a lot of money not having to give Williams a contract which starts at like $15 million a year or more on average.

They could give him a long-term deal to spread out the cap hit and hope the cap goes back up quickly. But he's not a spring chicken.

They'll have to make a decision on Williams well before the draft. Remember when their first pick came up in the draft this past year and I literally screamed at the TV, "Take Wirfs!!!"? Yeah, turns out they should have listened. I think Kinlaw can develop into a nice player, but Wirfs was a no-brainer, and is already really, really good.

[GS Warriors 1]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/03/09/trent-williams-on-possible-return-to-49ers-yall-barking-up-the-right-tree/

Williams, alongside Sherman, were guests yesterday on the Cris Collinsworth Podcast. Sherman thinks Williams will stay with the 49ers, to which Williams said "That's not a bad take. Y'all are barking up the right tree."

[CrimsonCrew]

Two drawbacks on Williams. First, we can't franchise him. Second, if we do lose him, we can't get better than a fifth-round pick for him. For this year, it probably makes sense to try to sign him to a three-year deal or something along those lines. It's going to cost, but he's worth it. If we lose him, we're pretty screwed on the OL, with probably four positions in a shaky state.

[CrimsonCrew]

Lots of buzz about Darnold these days. I'd be pretty disappointed with that, depending on what a trade would cost. If we're inclined to go in the "young, talented player, but bad to date" direction, we've already got a guy like that on our roster. I'd rather keep the draft pick an cap space and go with Rosen.

I agree, I have hesitation with Darnold as well. I do think that if anyone can help him reach his potential it’s Kyle. I would be a little bit meh about giving up a 2nd rounder for him as I think a 3rd is a better value. What intrigues me is the idea of Kyle having two young first round talents on the roster and have the ability to work with them both. It also would save tons on the cap and give us the ability to spend some money. I don’t know about you but I want Von Miller and possibly Trufant.

It's an interesting idea. I wouldn't give up our second for Darnold. Maybe our third. But it only works if we cut Garoppolo and free up cap space, and that could make for a very dicey year.

[GS Warriors 1]

49ers have re-signed CB Emmanuel Moseley to a 2 year deal, worth up to $10.1M.

Gonna go ahead and guess that there are very little guarantees for the 2nd year and that 2021 cap number is lower than the 2nd round RFA tender they were projected to give him (3.38M).

UPDATE: Right after posting, team announced that they've tendered ERFA OL Daniel Brunskill ($850k) and released Ronald Blair. Blair was a scheduled FA, so it gives him a head start.