The San Francisco 49ers are a bad team going nowhere fast. With numerous holes on the roster, it actually makes sense to part ways with a number of players under contract to open up the door for improvements down the road.
Addition by subtraction should be a valuable strategy for the San Francisco 49ers this upcoming offseason.
And not just for the financial reasons either.
At 1-9, the 2016 Niners are in need of a complete overhaul from top to bottom. While the majority of the team is young, a number of aging veterans and underperforming players are holding up spots that could otherwise be occupied by more-promising options.
With said record, and most of the San Francisco stat lines around the bottom of the league, no one’s job on the 53-man roster should be safe.
Cap concerns shouldn’t be a worry either. According to Over the Cap, the Niners will have $47,514,014 in cap space this season. And this number doesn’t include the carryover amount of unused space the Niners have this year.
So dead money shouldn’t be a factor. In some cases, releasing a player should actually generate substantially more savings.
Let’s take a look at five players the 49ers would be wise to release this upcoming offseason.