What if the 49ers pursue Giants safety Landon Collins?

There’s enough buzz suggesting safety Landon Collins won’t be back with the New York Giants in 2019, prompting speculation the San Francisco 49ers could be players for his services.

The San Francisco 49ers don’t need an in-the-box safety this offseason, per se. After all, there appears to be an interesting training camp battle brewing between the veteran, Jaquiski Tartt, and 2018 rookie, Marcell Harris, for the starting free safety job this year.

That said, the Niners have never shied away from making upgrades at positions when those options become available.

So it should pique general manager John Lynch’s interest that New York Giants safety Landon Collins, a three-time Pro Bowler, might become available this offseason. Collins, who is scheduled to hit free agency this March, hasn’t reached any sort of contract extension with New York and could be slapped with the franchise tag in 2019. But reports suggest Collins wouldn’t be happy with the latter approach.

Now, the question is whether or not the Giants let him walk.

If they do, would the 49ers hold any interest? As mentioned, the Niners already have some depth there. But Tartt has suffered season-ending injuries in each of the last two seasons. Harris had an up-and-down rookie year, so it’s hard to judge whether or not he’s a favorite to secure a starting job.

And while San Francisco has more than $65 million in projected cap space for 2019, one has to consider whether or not targeting a potentially available Collins, on what would likely be a fairly lucrative deal, would be a smart utilization of resources.

Free safety, not strong safety, is where the 49ers are hurting. Adding Collins wouldn’t simply solve that issue, as Pro Football Focus pointed out:

"When he first entered the league in 2015, Collins was used as a true free safety and played deep down the field en route to an underwhelming overall grade of 49.2, which was the third-lowest grade among safeties that year. Then, in 2016, Collins was moved to strong safety and played much closer to the line of scrimmage and his grade sky-rocketed as he earned a spot on the PFF top 101 for two straight years. For such a turn to take place, it should be obvious that Collins is much better suited for playing as a box safety, and that’s the role he should play on his new team if he wants to reclaim his spot as one of the league’s best safeties."

San Francisco’s Cover 3 defense typically lines up strong safeties up towards the line of scrimmage, and Collins’ run-stopping abilities would certainly thrive in coordinator Robert Saleh’s defense.

Plus, there’s the added idea the Niners could shift Tartt to free safety — a position he played back in 2017, at times, particularly if the team is unable to lure in a likely top NFL free agency target, the Seattle Seahawks’ Earl Thomas, this offseason.

A hunch, however, would suggest the 49ers aren’t totally interested in spending top dollar on a player like Collins, especially when they have other pressing needs elsewhere. Sure, he’d be an upgrade.

Just not necessarily for a position San Francisco needs to address as much as others.