3 pending free agents 49ers should re-sign for 2020
The San Francisco 49ers are on their bye week, which means it’s a good opportunity to look past this season and into the offseason and beyond. With that in mind, Niner Noise takes a look at the 49ers upcoming free agent class.
The free-agent class for the San Francisco 49ers after the 2019 season actually isn’t a particularly notable list, at least in terms of name recognition. Yes, the list includes defensive tackle and former first-round pick Arik Armstead, who is currently playing on his fifth-year option, as well as defensive end Ronald Blair III, but beyond that, most of the names are depth guys.
Most of the bigger names, like defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, tight end George Kittle, cornerbacks Richard Sherman, K’Waun Williams and Ahkello Witherspoon and wide receiver Trent Taylor, just to name are few, come up prior to the 2021 season.
To be clear right off the top, yes the list includes names like running back Jeff Wilson and backup quarterback Nick Mullens, but each of these players will be exclusive-rights free agents. This means the 49ers can offer these players whatever they want and the player has to take it or leave the NFL.
So even though a player like Mullens deserves to get paid, it feels likely that, at least for the 2020 season, he’ll make the minimum again while the 49ers figure out what to do with larger contacts they’re looking to get off the books or restructure (such as oft-injured running back Jerick McKinnon).
For the purposes of this exercise, I’ll keep the focus on those players listed as unrestricted free agents (UFAs). Restricted free agents, such as running back Matt Breida and wide receiver Kendrick Bourne, might be names worth keeping. But because of the complicated process of signing them, let’s keep this simple: try to keep Breida, don’t worry about Bourne, although cost effectiveness should come in to play here.
Alternatively the 49ers could try to lock down Breida long term, but given how much investment they have already at the position, that could be dicey.
With all that in mind, which of the UFAs should the 49ers be considering keeping around past the 2019 season, based on play so far in their career, this season and potential cost?
Let’s take a look at three possibilities.