It took awhile for the San Francisco 49ers to get active in this year’s offseason.
They made a handful of low-level free agent additions while watching several starters and key reserves leave to join other clubs. After the draft, the 49ers got busy with big-money extensions for tight end George Kittle, quarterback Brock Purdy and linebacker Fred Warner.
Still, it was a strange offseason considering how willing the 49ers have been to spend money to fill holes in free agency. This year they chose to fill their more significant roster weaknesses via the draft.
General manager John Lynch in an appearance on the 49ers Talk podcast explained the club’s decision to ‘throttle back’ on their aggressiveness in free agency.
“Look, we’ve been aggressive since Kyle (Shanahan) and I arrived here,” Lynch said. “And that’s what Jed and the family want to do. They want to be aggressive and we have been, but you can’t just keep doing that. At some point you have to throttle back. Then we felt for the overall health of our cap and cash situation — plus our roster in general — you don’t want to just become an aging roster.
“The year before, we felt like we had such a good team. Let’s keep it together, but you’ve got to stay young. And I think our draft last year was really good, and we had a chance with 11 picks to really add to that, and I was really excited. I thought we did a good job executing that plan.”
It’s hard to argue that the 49ers executed their plan well. They wanted some of their less productive, expensive, aging players off the roster so they could either save money or accelerate their cap hits to this year when Purdy is still not making a ton of money against the cap. With 11 picks to supplement an eight-player class from a season ago, San Francisco has successfully made their roster younger and less expensive in the immediate future.
On the other hand, whether this strategy ultimately works remains to be seen. The 49ers aren’t tanking, but they’re relying a lot on rookies for a club that’s trying to get back to Super Bowl contention. On-field production will ultimately tell us whether the 49ers successfully executed their long-term strategy, but for now the offseason appears to have played out exactly as they expected.
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