
(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
2022 is gonna be a busy one for one of the top front offices in the league. Most of us are still mourning the 4th quarter collapse in LA but.. this season gave the faithful a lot to be optimistic about heading into the next few years. Winning with a QB on their rookie contract is a major step in building a dynasty, and San Francisco has a fantastic chance of achieving that if they can ace this offseason.
First things first… create cap space.
Heading into the offseason San Francisco has about 2.9 million to play with, not ideal. Obviously the first domino to fall needs to be Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers have the ability to create a little over 25 million by trading or releasing the veteran QB this offseason. Next will likely be Dee Ford, whose contract is a little more complex but this article from NinersWire helps explain how cutting him at different dates will affect the free agency spending: Dee Ford Contract Situation
Outside of these two the other main ways to create cap space will be restructuring some pillars of the team like Arik Armstead & Jimmie Ward.
Now we move on to the fun stuff.. Resigning our All-Pro’s (Bosa was snubbed and he’s an all pro damn it.)
GM John Lynch has came out and said that extending Nick Bosa and Deebo Samuel are priorities this offseason and that they’ve been “budgeted for”. Ideally both limit the cap hit for this offseason and have contracts with major money down the road (the ol’ we’ll cross that bridge when we get there move). After extending these two there are a multitude of ways we could attack free agency.
Clearly the faithful have been calling for more depth in the secondary, but I personally would love to see the boys upstairs aim to fortify the trenches, starting with Laken Tomlinson (OG) and DJ Jones (DL). Our team identity the past few years has been playing more physically then the team opposite us, and the numbers back that up. Laken Tomlinson has been one of the most consistent guards and is essential to this offensive line, he’ll likely warrant a $7-10 million dollar annual contract which we should absolutely shell out for a 3 year deal. He allowed just 2 sacks this year on nearly 600 pass protection snaps.
DJ Jones was pivotal in the run stopping game which made Demeco Ryans defense so elite down the stretch. He made the highlight open field tackle on 4th down against the Rams on Monday Night Football, proving his athleticism along with size. DJ is coming off a $3.5 million dollar deal and will certainly warrant at least a $6 million dollar annual deal.
After spending around $12-17 million annually on these two in the trenches we will likely turn to the secondary. Stars like Stephon Gilmore and J.C. Jackson would be perfect additions to lock down the super bowl push. That being said a lot will have to go right to secure one of these two stud free agents, a more realistic approach is re-signing K’Waun “Shark” Williams to a team friendly deal to man the slot defender role.
One big question mark we’ll see is how they choose to go about LB’s. Azeez Al-Shaair had a breakout season and would be a huge signing, but we already have solid LB’s so this seems like an odd man out situation. I’d like to make it very clear, the faithful want Azeez back.
We also need to consider the draft in this process, obviously the first round is 95% out of the picture this year but we likely will see either multiple 2nd round or 3rd round selections. Under this regime we’ve had some solid success in the later rounds. This year's class currently looks thin at safety but does have some solid talent at corner, meaning it would seem more likely that if we can grab Jaquiski Tartt back at a discount deal then this team can build at corner behind Ambry Thomas in the draft.
Jauan Jennings is another piece that will dictate how the 49ers draft plays out, and all signs point to him coming back to San Francisco. Four names to look out for that should be around in rounds 2-4 for the 49ers are: Baylor CB Jalen Pitre, Memphis G Dylan Parham, Kentucky C Luke Fortner, North Dakota St. WR Christian Watson. Watson has been skyrocketing up draft boards since the Senior Bowl, so even if we can’t get our hands on Trey Lance's main target in college there are a ton of solid route runners in the projected for the later rounds in this draft.
Other clear positions to address: Backup QB, Edge rusher depth, Sign or draft 3rd RB
If you couldn’t tell by now a big portion of my wish list is retaining what went right in 2021 + adding key pieces in the Trenches / Secondary. I’ll continue to post these types of articles as we slowly make moves, but please John Lynch, If this somehow gets to you, bring back Laken and DJ.
- Ryan Mobley / Upside Play
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