49ers: 3 players who have overstayed their welcome in San Francisco

It’s highly likely 49ers fans want the team to move on from these three players as soon as possible, as it’s pretty clear they aren’t panning out.

Not every player drafted, traded for or signed by the San Francisco 49ers ends up panning out.

The Niners have made poor choices over the years, and many of those resulted in some fair or not-so-fair criticism from the fanbase. In 2012, then-rookie wide receiver A.J. Jenkins became one of the biggest flame-outs in the franchise’s history of the NFL Draft. That led almost immediately to Jenkins’ jettisoning the following season. Linebacker Malcolm Smith, who signed a lucrative free-agent contract in 2017, also never lived up to the hype and was relegated to castoff status at the end of the 2018 season.

Smith was in an entirely different context than Jenkins, though. In 2017, San Francisco was looking for all kinds of help coming off a 2-14 record the previous year. The veteran linebacker was an upgrade, although to what degree can be argued. Jenkins, however, joined an already-stacked 49ers roster that made the Super Bowl that year. Simply put, there was little room on the roster for developmental players.

The Niners are in the latter category now, fresh off a Super Bowl appearance and in a position where no-longer-needed players emerge as excess commodities. Head coach Kyle Shanahan already pursued this route of parting ways with such players during the offseason, trading away wide receiver Marquise Goodwin and running back Matt Breida to free up roster space.

Fairly or not, both Breida and Goodwin exceeded their welcome in San Francisco by the end of their respective tenures.

There are three others who essentially fall into the same category entering 2020, and fans likely want to see them play elsewhere sooner than later.