The 49ers were able to wait it out with injured EDGE Dee Ford, whose post-June 1 release will still cost a lot of dead cap but won’t be as bad as before.
Right now, at least at the time of this article being written, veteran EDGE Dee Ford is still on the San Francisco 49ers roster.
One shouldn’t expect things to stay that way for very long, though.
The 31-year-old pass-rusher whom the Niners acquired via trade from the Kansas City Chiefs early in 2019, subsequently signing him to a five-year extension worth $85.5 million, subsequently dealt with a series of injuries during his three-year tenure with San Francisco, being limited to 11 regular-season games his first season with the squad, just one in 2020 and then only six in 2021.
And while he was notably productive in the pass-rush department when healthy, a chronic back injury ultimately put into question his greatest asset that was missing: availability.
| Game | Game | Def | Fumb | Fumb | Tack | Tack | Tack | Tack | Tack | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Age | Tm | G | GS | PD | FF | FR | Sk | Comb | Solo | Ast | TFL | QBHits |
| 2014 | 23 | KAN | 16 | 0 | 1 | 1.5 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 2015 | 24 | KAN | 14 | 5 | 2 | 4.0 | 23 | 21 | 2 | 6 | 11 | ||
| 2016 | 25 | KAN | 15 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 10.0 | 38 | 25 | 13 | 12 | 17 |
| 2017 | 26 | KAN | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.0 | 13 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| 2018* | 27 | KAN | 16 | 16 | 7 | 0 | 13.0 | 55 | 42 | 13 | 13 | 29 | |
| 2019 | 28 | SFO | 11 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6.5 | 14 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| 2020 | 29 | SFO | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 2021 | 30 | SFO | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.0 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Career | Career | 85 | 43 | 7 | 12 | 0 | 40.0 | 159 | 117 | 42 | 44 | 79 | |
| 5 yr | 5 yr | KAN | 67 | 41 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 30.5 | 137 | 103 | 34 | 36 | 69 |
| 3 yr | 3 yr | SFO | 18 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 9.5 | 22 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 10 |
Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com
Generated 6/4/2022.
Even though the 49ers reworked Ford’s contract, he’s still going to carry plenty of dead money over into 2022 no matter what the Niners do with him.
Despite that, general manager John Lynch already suggested the team was prepared to move on from Ford anyway this offseason.
Let’s dive a bit deeper into how Ford’s inevitable release will impact San Francisco.