The 49ers’ 2022 offseason hasn’t gone perfectly, but these two pressing issues have had to be of the most annoyance to John Lynch so far.
Thank goodness, at least for his sake, San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch is good with the media. He was, after all, a former Fox Sports analyst after his pro playing career wrapped up, so he understands the questions and gets how to provide answers that can be, at times, both telling and vague all at the same time.
Lynch, ever the optimist, is still facing some awfully big challenges as the Niners look to navigate the rest of the offseason in 2022 and the lead-up to this year’s NFL Draft.
While not expected to be massive players in free agency once the league new year began, San Francisco was nevertheless reluctant to engineer a lot of splash deals. The only big-ticket item was signing veteran cornerback Charvarius Ward, who’ll immediately assume the No. 1 spot on the depth chart at his position.
Aside from that, most of Lynch’s moves were ancillary in addition to some of the notable free-agent departures the 49ers endured.
Things might have been notably different if a few things had worked better in the Niners’ favor, though, and it’s likely there are a couple of circumstances creating frustration for Lynch and Co. even if he’s not openly saying as much.
Let’s take a look at two of those specific “headaches” Lynch has had to deal with this offseason and why they’ve created a less-than-perfect offseason for San Francisco thus far.
49ers headache No. 1: Inability to trade Jimmy Garoppolo
Going into the offseason, everyone knew the 49ers were going to trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, likely to the highest-bidding team that still offered a legitimate chance at playoff contention. Heck, Garoppolo even said his farewell to the media during his final press conference following the Niners’ elimination in the NFC Championship game.
Amid a bad market for quarterback-needy teams, considering the lack of options in free agency and few no-doubt prospects in this year’s NFL Draft, , it was supposed to be a good time for San Francisco to trade Jimmy G when few other options were seemingly available.
Except all the dominos started to fall — Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos, Carson Wentz to the Washington Commanders, Deshaun Watson to the Cleveland Browns, Marcus Mariota to the Atlanta Falcons, Matt Ryan to the Colts and so on — and Garoppolo was left out of the mix.
Entirely.
Moreover, John Lynch’s comments to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Eric Branch didn’t exactly suggest the 49ers received a lot of recent interest:
"No. Conceptually, we’ve talked [with other teams]. And we’ve had conversations. But no one has said, “OK, here’s our offer.” We never got to that point."
Lynch also added the Niners are prepared to hold onto Garoppolo for a while, waiting for that situation to develop where a team might seek a trade. In the interim, though, San Francisco is still scheduled to be on the hook for Jimmy G’s $27 million salary owed to him in 2022, along with all the fallout of not being able to fully transition to 2021 rookie quarterback Trey Lance.
In an ideal world, Lynch and the 49ers would have been able to wash their hands clean of the Garoppolo situation by now, freeing up the bulk of that money and getting something at least modestly worthwhile in return.
Except all those quarterback-needy teams had other plans.
49ers headache No. 2: Dee Ford is an expensive lost cause
A season ago, it seemed a small miracle EDGE Dee Ford was able to return from a serious back injury suffered after just one week’s play in 2020. And while Ford was able to appear in six games a year ago, registering three sacks in the process, that same back injury ended up relegating him to season-ending injured reserve.
Now, John Lynch and the Niners restructred Ford’s deal this offseason, but it wasn’t with the intent of keeping him around for the long run.
No, it was to spread apart the still-sizable cap hit Ford commands after having received a hefty contract extension once San Francisco traded for him from the Kansas City Chiefs back in 2019 for a second-round draft pick.
John Lynch doesn’t see Dee Ford returning to the #49ers.
— Akash Anavarathan (@akashanav) March 28, 2022
Assuming they do a post-June 1 release on him, here’s what he’s going to cost:
2022: $5.83M
2023: $5.83M
But does come with $1.1M and $2.76M cap savings over the next two years. Just brutal.
“I don’t see a lot of hope in him being a factor for us on the field moving forward,” Lynch added when asked about Ford.
San Francisco has already sunk more than $41 million into Ford over three seasons, and yet he’s appeared in just 18 regular-season games during that timeframe, his career all but derailed by significant injuries.
In another hindsight measure, Lynch and the 49ers have to be thinking about their regrets for engineering that trade, which has to go down as one of the worst in recent team history.
If only that wasn’t the case. But it is.