5 free agents the San Francisco 49ers should target this offseason

Going into the 2019 season, John Lynch and co. have plenty of heavy lifting ahead of them. No doubt free agency will play a key role. Here are five players the San Francisco 49ers should target.

There is no better time to begin thinking of next year than when your team is 2-9, lost eight of it’s last nine and has most recently been blown out, after the bye week, by a previously 3-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad.

If this is the first editorial you are reading after six months on Mars, you are probably thinking: Why are they talking about the Cleveland Browns on the Niner Noise website?

Sad but true, San Francisco 49ers fans, this is where we are.

Sure there are still five games on the schedule. But they have more impact on 49ers NFL Draft position than playoff potential.

As I lift my gaze to 2019 I think about the players that will be coming back from injury. The young players I expect to mature and improve through coaching and hard work. No matter how few, I think of the players that laid it all on the line, put together a solid season and are expected to be key pieces of, hopefully, an improved squad next year.

What I am left with are the liabilities from this year’s team. Football teams being like good investment portfolios, you always want to minimize your liabilities. Replace them with assets that will perform.

In the NFL there are three ways to acquire new assets: trade, the NFL Draft and free agency.

Trades are often random and require a willing partner.

49ers general manager John Lynch still has five months until he has to call the commissioner, in Nashville, Tennessee to declare who he wishes to select in the 2019 NFL Draft. Between now and then not only draft position but also draft capital can change.

That leaves NFL free agency. The method of acquisition with the fewest variables.

Based on current, perceived team needs, this is a ranking of the top five upcoming free agents that the 49ers should target.