49ers win by Saints cutting Kwon Alexander, Emmanuel Sanders

The 49ers had to turn away Emmanuel Sanders and Kwon Alexander in 2020, yet the Saints released both, thereby giving the Niners a win.

For those thinking the San Francisco 49ers are in salary-cap hell, think again.

And when in doubt, just check out the New Orleans Saints. As of March 10, according to Over the Cap, the Saints were over the cap by $31.9 million. Only days before, they were nearly double that total over the cap.

Considering the Niners were at $23.9 million at the start of the same day against an announced $182.5 million, which isn’t necessarily great, things could be as bad as New Orleans’ situation.

The Saints being in salary-cap hell resulted in two specific changes San Francisco fans might pay attention to: the release of two former 49ers players, wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders and linebacker Kwon Alexander, as announced by ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, respectively:

Both players, who were integral parts of the Niners’ Super Bowl run in 2019, found themselves trying to push the Saints to do the same last year.

In Sanders’ case, San Francisco needed to free up money to extend All-Pro tight end George Kittle, eventually letting the former walk in NFL free agency after essentially being “rented” from the Denver Broncos after the 2019 trade deadline. Even though the 49ers had to give up a second- and third-round draft pick in 2020 to acquire him, the Niners are expected to receive a fifth-round compensatory pick in return after Sanders signed his two-year, $16 million contract with New Orleans last offseason.

Alexander’s situation was a lot stickier.

The veteran linebacker was essentially made expendable by the maturation of his fellow position mates, Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw, but it was going to be awfully difficult to move Alexander’s massive four-year, $54 million free-agent deal entering 2019.

Yet that’s what San Francisco was able to do despite having to carry over $11 million of dead money.

Typically, those contracts can require the team to trade off a deal of its financial caliber to also include draft compensation towards another team taking on a massive contract. Yet the 49ers were able to pull in a fifth-round pick in return instead of having to package draft capital to go along with Alexander’s contract.

While the Saints cleared their own cap space and only had to give up a day-three pick in exchange, it’s still a notable win from the Niners’ vantage point. San Francisco got out from under Alexander’s contract while picking up an asset in return.

Essentially the same thing with Sanders, too, albeit via the comp-pick variety.

Would 49ers entertain a reunion with Emmanuel Sanders, Kwon Alexander?

The only way the 49ers could possibly consider re-signing Alexander would be if they had no intention to extend Warner, who’ll be due an extension perhaps in the range of $18-plus million per year, likely resetting the linebacker market. Warner and the Niners can negotiate such a deal once the league new year starts, and it’s hard to imagine the team’s front office low-balling or passing on the idea of locking up one of its youngest star players.

So from that vantage point, Alexander is easily out.

As far as Sanders goes, San Francisco already has two star-caliber wide receivers on the ascent, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel.

That said, the 49ers do have an affinity for Sanders, as NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco pointed out:

"“(It was) really hard to lose Emmanuel this offseason,” [head coach Kyle Shanahan] said. “One of the toughest decisions we had to make. But New Orleans came through and gave him what he deserved and we had to move in a different direction and go there in the draft.“Just watching him and what he did for us in that game last year these last couple of days is unbelievable and he’s doing an unbelievable job for them, also.”If the 49ers make a free-agent play for Sanders this offseason, he would fit into the receiver rotation as the No. 3 option behind Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk."

The Niners have depth questions behind Aiyuk and Samuel, particularly with fellow receiver Kendrick Bourne a free agent.

Yet the 2021 NFL Draft is laden with talented wide receivers throughout all rounds, so one has to figure San Francisco’s own cap limitations could bar the team from going after Sanders on the open market.

Unless he’s willing to take an awfully team-friendly deal, which is possible.

It just doesn’t seem likely, though, although it’s more than fair to recognize the fact the 49ers handled both Alexander and Sanders’ situations correctly, while the Saints had to engineer a “slash and burn” policy with their roster.