5 Players the 49ers Should Still Target in Free Agency

The San Francisco 49ers remained relatively quiet in the first wave of free agency, opting to re-sign their own players before looking elsewhere. With quality players still on the market, Niner Noise looks at players the 49ers should still consider signing.

Free agency and the new league year officially began on Wednesday, March 9 and it’s been a blur of signings since then. As more deals are reported, the potential to land quality starters becomes less and less for the San Francisco 49ers.

Throughout the first wave of free agency, the team elected to spend the majority of time and resources on re-signing many of their own players. Those moves, although not terribly sexy or intriguing, are crucial to the continued rebuild of the franchise.

Niner Noise looked at how that first wave of free agency graded out and whether or not the 49ers were on the right track with the moves they were making. The rumor mill has quieted rather quickly and those assessments remain the same as the league enters the first full week of free agency.

While the big-name players are off the market, there are starting-quality players that are still available if the 49ers act quickly and decisively. The 49ers plan has been unclear up to this point but we may gain clarity as the team begins signing or targeting the second-wave of players.

With free agency rolling into the second week, we are approaching the range where Baalke seems to be more comfortable spending money. He’ll begin to locate players that, for one reason or another, have bargain salary implications and can still contribute at a high level.

The word bargain will be floated plenty, and it’s important to understand what that means relative to the 49ers. The team is in the midst of a rebuild, make no mistake about that. They need to find quality starters and depth all throughout the roster. While signing a big-name player is exciting, the reality is that this team has many more holes to fill and will likely need two to three years to do so.

Bleacher Report‘s Lead NFL Draft Writer Matt Miller believes that the 49ers may have a plan that takes longer than one offseason.

If Miller’s assumption is correct, the 49ers plan in free agency is wise. Compensatory picks are directly related to the number of free agents that leave your team versus how many the team signs. Teams can’t lose picks for having free agents signing elsewhere but the 49ers have gained four picks in the 2016 NFL Draft simply because of the players that elected to sign elsewhere in the previous offseason.

In analyzing the needs that remain on the 49ers roster, and there are plenty of them, the second-tier of free agency offers players that improve the roster moving forward. Baalke will need to isolate the players available that can be productive on new head coach Chip Kelly’s squad.

Moving forward, here are five players that are still available in free agency and can be immediate help to the 49ers in 2016.

Next: Solidifying the Offensive Line