3 free agents who could start for 49ers right now
By Peter Panacy
The 49ers may not have the resources to sign still-available big-name free agents, but these three players could probably start right away if signed.
According to Over the Cap, no team has it worse in terms of salary cap space in the middle of the 2022 offseason than the San Francisco 49ers.
They have just $673,752 in cap space, per OTC.
Of course, during this portion of the NFL calendar, only the top 51 contracts apply. So it’s still possible for the Niners to engineer some back-end-of-the-roster moves without impacting their total salary-cap hit.
However, there’s one particular quarterback hanging onto a roster spot who’s claiming more in $25.5 million in cap space that could be freed up, should San Francisco elect to go that route.
Gee, let’s wonder who that is, right?
The 49ers roster is mostly complete, particularly after their moves in the 2022 NFL Draft. And it isn’t as if general manager John Lynch had a lot of holes to address anyway, the bulk of those draft selections being more supplementary in nature and intended to beef up the depth chart rather than find day-one starters this season.
However, there are a few holes that still need to be filled, and there are still a number of relatively high-quality free agents who could potentially fill them.
Granted, the Niners may have to make that big roster move to free up cap space. If they did, and these three free agents are still available thereafter, San Francisco would likely find itself with three new starters.
Let’s take a look.