San Francisco 49ers: Top 4 players who need to go in 2019

49ers Cap Casualty No. 1: TE Garrett Celek

“Celek Time” is about to officially strike midnight. At 31 years old, San Francisco 49ers tight end Garrett Celek will enter his eighth season in the NFL in 2019, a year after catching just five passes in 15 games.

Celek first signed in San Francisco as an undrafted free agent in 2012, and played four years with the team at minimal cost before the previous regime signed the part-time tight end to an overpriced four-year contract extension worth up to $14 million.

Despite the fact that Celek wasn’t the best blocker, he was used primarily in that role for the majority of his career. When Shanahan arrived in San Francisco, he brought blocking tight end Logan Paulsen with him, which appeared to signify the end of Celek’s tenure with the Niners. But in a surprise move, Shanahan and Lynch chose to keep Celek over tight end Vance McDonald, and ate nearly $6 million in dead money in the process.

In their first season together, Celek and rookie tight end George Kittle became an effective pairing, particularly as the youngster became acclimated with the speed of the game at the NFL level during the second half of 2017. Celek flourished as Kittle’s compliment, as the hard-working tight end amassed 336 receiving yards and four touchdowns, with his teammates motioning to their wrists to signify it was “Celek Time” after every score.

Unfortunately, the latter half of the 2017 season proved to be peak Celek. While his injured thumb certainly played a role in his poor 2018 season, Celek regressed to his pre-2017 form even before his injury. As the season progressed, Celek became a non-factor in the passing game, as the tight end no longer had the benefit of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo feeding him perfectly thrown passes.

As Niner Noise’s Peter Panacy wrote earlier this week, the San Francisco 49ers desperately need another tight end to complement Kittle in 2019 — perhaps a tight end like McDonald who caught 50 passes for 610 yards for the Pittsburgh Steelers last season.

Celek is set to make over $2.7 million in the final season of his contract. Cutting the veteran tight end would save the San Francisco 49ers over $2 million in salary cap space in 2019.