SF 49ers free agency: 5 cheap players to target in 2021
By Peter Panacy
The SF 49ers don’t have the resources to be big spenders in NFL free agency this offseason, but these cheaper options could still be targets.
Barring some major roster jockeying this offseason, general manager John Lynch and the SF 49ers aren’t going to be big-time players on the free-agent market.
Much of this is due to the lowering 2021 salary cap, which is expected to drop to approximately $180 million from the near-$200 million it was at in 2020. And while the Niners aren’t in the worst of situations, armed with just over $13 million in cap space by Over the Cap‘s projections, the fact they already have nearly 40 pending free agents set to hit the open market doesn’t bode well for lucrative offseason spending.
Currently, OTC has 12 teams above the salary cap this offseason, meaning there are going to be plenty of solid players who become cap casualties in 2021.
Most of them will be off San Francisco’s radar, unfortunately.
Yet that shouldn’t deter Lynch and Co. from going after some low-budget options on the cheap, both to reinforce the depth chart and to potentially squeak in as a would-be starter to replace some of the names the SF 49ers are assuredly going to lose to the offseason market.
Here are five such players the Niners can consider.
SF 49ers Free-Agent Target No. 5: Cornerback Rasul Douglas
San Francisco is going to potentially lose boundary cornerbacks Richard Sherman, Ahkello Witherspoon, Dontae Johnson and Jason Verrett to NFL free agency this offseason. And while it would be ideal to re-sign at least one of those players, preferably Verrett, the reality is the SF 49ers could be pinched at the position and would need some cheap veteran options anyway.
Carolina Panthers cornerback Rasul Douglas isn’t necessarily an upgrade. And according to Pro Football Focus, he allowed a passer rating of 106.8 to opposing quarterbacks in 2020.
But one might figure the 27-year-old Douglas could perform better in a zone-heavy defense, which the Niners probably continue under first-year defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans.
At 6-foot-2 and 209 pounds, the former third-round pick embodies what San Francisco has traditionally done with boundary corners the past few years.
Even if Douglas doesn’t start, he’d come cheap after his one-year, $825,000 deal with Carolina last season and could, at the very worst, bolster the depth chart while adding some veteran savvy.