The 49ers arguably had only one priority free-agent re-signing to make: retaining veteran kicker Robbie Gould, which was done by applying the team’s franchise tag on him.
Gould has been better than solid for San Francisco the past two seasons, which included a league-leading 97.1 field-goal conversion rate in 2018. He appears to have mastered the reportedly difficult kicking conditions at Levi’s Stadium, which influenced the Niners enough to risk giving the 36-year-old veteran nearly $5 million in guaranteed money on the franchise tag.
The Niners and Gould have until July 15 to work out a long-term extension. If not, he’ll play on that tag for the upcoming year.
It’s a lot of money for a kicker, though, which prevents this deal from being a bona fide A-grade. Further knocking the grade down a bit is the four-year extension given to long-snapper Kyle Nelson, especially with him yet to serve six games on a 10-game PED suspension handed down last year.
This helps, though:
Hearing there’s a mechanism in long-snapper Kyle Nelson’s contract that enables the #49ers after six games to remain with Colin Holba without any financial impact if things are going well with their specialists and they don’t want to break up that chemistry.
— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoNBCS) March 12, 2019
San Francisco is also bringing back versatile defensive back Jimmie Ward who, despite landing on injured reserve in four of his five NFL seasons, has the flexibility to play at safety and both nickel and boundary corner spots. It’s a one-year deal and won’t hurt the team’s long-term plans.
The 49ers were smart, however, to let punter Bradley Pinion go to the Buccaneers in NFL free agency, while also declining the 2019 options on wide receiver Pierre Garçon and nose tackle Earl Mitchell.
In the case of the latter two, San Francisco has both younger and cheaper options who can fill the same roles with nearly identical production, projection-wise at least.
With Pinion’s departure, the team closes yet another door on former general manager Trent Baalke’s era. That’s been a trend for the past two-plus years.