Top 10 Biggest Mistakes the 49ers Have Made Since 2015
By Peter Panacy
No. 7: Failure to Hit in 2016 Free Agency
San Francisco currently has $43,141,199 in salary cap space, according to Over the Cap. And at one point prior to the season, the Niners had more cap space than any other team in the NFL.
General manager Trent Baalke’s biggest offseason addition? None other than less-than-stellar guard Zane Beadles.
OK, so Baalke isn’t a big free-agency guy. And that’s fine. Big contracts on the first day of free agency are usually the ones resulting in busts and/or poor cap management. There’s a direct correlation there for various reasons.
But the Niners were hurting for supplementary and role-player talent as well. Last offseason wasn’t much different than the one they faced in 2015, nor will it be vastly different than what will happen in 2017.
Baalke passed on standout players, like now-Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle Malik Jackson and now-Chicago Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan. But he also whiffed on guys who could have provided the much-needed depth to help supplement a roster in need of talent almost everywhere.
In some ways, those types of players are just as important as the elite-level playmakers too.