3 free agents who could start for 49ers right now
By Peter Panacy
49ers free-agent target No. 2: Safety Jaquiski Tartt
It’s a bit of an oddity the Niners didn’t re-sign their own, safety Jaquiski Tartt, this offseason. And it gets even odder with each passing week.
Granted, San Francisco initially passing on a re-sign deal made some sense. There were plenty of high-profile safeties to be had in the NFL Draft, and there were also some notable veterans on the free-agent market, too, particularly now-New Orleans Saints defensive back Tyriann Mathieu.
The 49ers effectively passed on all of them, including not drafting a safety in 2022.
That means the Niners hope one of the three veteran options at safety — Talanoa Hufanga, Tarvarius Moore or 2022 special teams add-on George Odum — can end up starting, as it doesn’t seem wise for them to expect undrafted free-agent safety Leon O’Neal Jr. to immediately start in place of Tartt’s departure.
All four of those names carry concerns in a starter’s role. O’Neal because he’s a low-profile rookie, Hufanga because of his coverage skills, Odum because he’s primarily a special teams ace only and Moore because he’s coming off a torn Achilles suffered last year.
San Francisco could solve this easily.
Re-sign Tartt. He’d likely be more than happy to return to the team that drafted him way back in 2015.