The 49ers’ actions in the 2022 NFL Draft are now complete, but there’s still work to be done. Here are three moves the team has to make immediately.
The 2022 NFL Draft is now complete, and the San Francisco 49ers can hope their class of nine rookie draftees winds up becoming an integral part of their future for at least the next few years.
Additionally, one can hope a handful of notable undrafted free agents wind up impacting the Niners positively, too.
However, anyone who’s followed the league in the wake of each year’s draft can attest to the inevitable movement that’ll take place between now and the beginning of training camp. Teams suddenly make even more transactions, cutting or even trading away players no longer deemed vital to their chances, while other teams scramble to acquire assets they inevitably failed to get during the draft itself.
For general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan, who have long stressed the desire to always improve wherever possible, work isn’t complete just because the 2022 draft is finished and the slew of UDFAs are aboard.
No, in fact, Lynch and Shanahan should look to make some immediate moves right away, helping improve San Francisco’s roster right now and position the team better towards actually reaching the Super Bowl.
Some of these moves might be admissions of failure on previous offseason moves, while others can take advantage of a still-fluid free-agent market.
Either way, here are three moves Lynch, Shanahan and the 49ers have to engineer at the soonest possible moment.
49ers move No. 1: Bid farewell to Jimmy Garoppolo
The Niners spent the entirety of the offseason trying to trade away quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo but to no avail. Whether it’s his $25.5 million post-trade cap hit in 2022, the fact he’s coming off shoulder surgery and won’t be available until training camp or whatever, Garoppolo remains a lame duck on San Francisco’s roster despite the flurry of quarterbacking changes the league saw prior to the NFL Draft.
With the draft complete, and the Carolina Panthers (one of arguably three teams in the market for a quarterback) taking Ole Miss signal-caller Matt Corral, whatever last-ditch chance the 49ers had to trade Garoppolo evaporated. True, the Niners can hope another team’s starting quarterback suffers an offseason injury or completely flames out, resparking the need for a starter.
But that hope could find itself irrelevant awfully soon.
The Niners need that $25.5 million, especially since their rookie 2022 draft class will cost approximately $7 million to sign by camp anyway.
Doing this isn’t without precedent either. The Chicago Bears are granting quarterback Nick Foles, a one-time Super Bowl MVP, his release after failing to trade him. Finally cutting bait with Garoppolo and leaving him to his own devices would be the proverbial “ripping off the Band-Aid” while fully endorsing the future with second-year quarterback Trey Lance.
49ers move No. 2: Sign free-agent center J.C. Tretter
San Francisco knows the situation with veteran Pro Bowl center Alex Mack much better than most insiders and fans, but there’s still a strong chance the 36-year-old standout winds up retiring this offseason.
According to the latest reports from the San Francisco Chronicle’s Eric Branch, Mack remains undecided.
That’s not a good thing.
The 49ers do have immediate contingency plans, yes. They could move right guard Daniel Brunskill over to center if Mack retires, while UDFA Dohnovan West out of Arizona State was pegged as a possible in-draft replacement, too.
Read More: Niners won undrafted free agency by landing Dohnovan West
But Brunskill struggled at center in 2020, and Kyle Shanahan has long preferred veterans over young players at this position, too.
This is one reason why parting ways with Jimmy Garoppolo makes even more sense, as it would free up the necessary money to onboard 31-year-old veteran center J.C. Tretter, who spent the last five years with the Cleveland Browns and should be considered a worthy free-agent target.
Tretter has played in Shanahan-like offenses before and would make the transition away from Mack a much easier one.
49ers move No. 3: Give Deebo Samuel his contract extension
In a way, the Niners won day one of the NFL Draft without having to do a thing. If anything, they sat back and watched the Tennessee Titans trade away Pro Bowl wide receiver A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles, who subsequently signed him to a four-year, $100 million deal with $57 million guaranteed.
There’s a parallel here.
Brown’s agent also represents San Francisco’s own top wideout, All-Pro Deebo Samuel, whose own trade speculation dominated the days leading up to the draft itself. But the 49ers didn’t move Samuel, and he remains under contractual control for 2021 and could even be franchise tagged in 2022.
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Samuel is arguably worth more than Brown, but the latter’s new contract sets the benchmark. And while the Niners could feasibly wait Samuel out, particularly if he elects to sit out training camp and the hefty cost of $40,000 per day, the smarter play would be coming to a resolution.
Simply put, it’s time to engineer that contract extension now.
Doing so would help mend the bridge between Samuel and San Francisco, also allocating time for him to take the field and develop even more of a rapport with Trey Lance, which should be another top priority.
In short, the 49ers no longer need to wait this out. It’s time to get that deal done.