Will the 49ers Make a Splash In Free Agency?
By David Ochoa
Ever since he took over the GM duties for the San Francisco 49ers, Trent Baalke has never been a big spender in free agency. He has always taken a more frugal approach by signing cheaper, fringe players and banking on having the team or the system build them up. This approach worked perfectly in 2011, but Baalke has yet to replicate the same success.
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Recently the 49ers haven’t been ones to try and sign big name free agents. However, they were linked to both Peyton Manning and Darrelle Revis in recent years. None of us know exactly how serious they were pursuing, but it shows the team does have interest in these names.
With the salary cap jumping up $10 million up to $143.28 million, the 49ers have more cap space than previously thought.
That puts #49ers at $7.084M under the salary cap, using http://t.co/yCINHPEa6k's figures. (And $5.226M under, according to @spotrac).
— Matt Maiocco (Threads @maiocconbcs) (@MaioccoNBCS) March 2, 2015
Before the salary cap was announced the 49ers were predicted to be either right up against or over the cap. With the jump in cap, the 49ers are now reportedly $7.084 million dollars under the cap. They will clear up even more space if they go forward with cutting Stevie Johnson and Ahmad Brooks, and if Justin Smith retires.
Here is a list of all the projected free agents.
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Before the 49ers try to sign any new players, they will most likely go after their own players. They will have the first shot a players that have played big roles in previous years such as Frank Gore, Mike Iupati, Michael Crabtree, Perrish Cox, and Chris Culliver.
After re-signing maybe one or two of these guys, Baalke and Co. will turn their eyes to the rest of the league. I don’t expect the team to go after any of the big names because that goes against Baalke’s philosophy. But like usual, they may bring in one or two cheaper guys that they believe they can build into a solid contributor a la Dan Skuta.
Baalke has stated that the 49ers are reloading and not rebuilding, so no one should expect any players that break the bank. The 49ers don’t need any superstars to push them over the edge, they just need depth and solid contributors.