San Francisco 49ers: 15 best free-agent acquisitions of all time

Greatest free agent acquistions in San Francisco 49ers history: 7. Deion Sanders

49ers Tenure: 1994

Some may argue “Primetime” should be ranked higher on this list. The only problem with that, however, is Deion Sanders spent just one season in San Francisco.

Making matters worse, he’d leave for the Niners’ arch enemy in the Dallas Cowboys the following year. And that certainly didn’t help win Sanders any additional fans after his lone 1994 season donning red and gold.

But what a season that was, though.

Sanders came to the 49ers to win a Super Bowl in 1994, which is exactly what happened, as he helped the franchise secure its fifth Lombardi Trophy. Yet Sanders was more than just a big name.

During that year, he managed an astounding six interceptions with a league-leading 303 pick-return yards and three defensive touchdowns — kinds of numbers one might see only a handful of times in a lifetime, and a return total that currently stands fifth all time in interception-return yardage in a single season.

Sanders’ teammate that year, Gary Plummer, had a different take on the kind of swagger the cornerback brought to the field, according to SFGate.com’s Gwen Knapp:

"Plummer believes that Sanders used his image to mislead opponents about his savvy. In games, Plummer remembered, the cornerback would stand at a distance from the defensive huddle, often dancing in place. The posturing rubbed in the fact that Sanders could lock down one side of the backfield by himself, shifting the safeties and complexities of zone coverage to the other. “It made him look arrogant, aloof, cocky when he wouldn’t come into the huddle,” Plummer said. “But he wasn’t just over there to dance and jaw with (the opponents’) players and their coaches. He was trying to pick up information. And believe me, even if he wasn’t in the huddle, we had hand signals and he was communicating. … He was as smart a corner as I ever saw.”"

He was a pretty big playmaker, too.

Had Sanders stayed a bit longer with the 49ers, there’s no doubt he’d be No. 1 on our list. Still, coming in at No. 7 among the franchise’s all-time free-agent signings is no insult.