Four Down Territory: Old Man Yells at Cloud
Second Down
All things considered, the 49ers are doing well this season.
They’ve been ravaged by injuries (every good player is basically out) and are still 6-9. If the draft started today they’d be picking 15th. Kyle Shanahan has proven his genius and Brandon Aiyuk is 250 yards away from a 1,000 rookie campaign.
The future can still be bright for San Francisco if a few things can break their way.
Currently these are the big names heading into free agency.
- Trent Williams
- Solomon Thomas
- Richard Sherman
- Kyle Juszczyk
- Jason Verrett
- Nick Mullens
- Jordan Reed
- C.J.Beathard
There are a few more names but the point is there’s no way the 49ers will be able to retain all of that talent with an estimated $21 million in cap space.
One avenue to explore, though, is moving on from Jimmy Garoppolo.
The 49ers could trade Jimmy but he has a no-trade clause until 2022. So if a trade is going to happen then Jimmy has to give the okay before it happens. Another route is to flat our release him. If San Fran releases Jimmy they’ll save about $24 million in cap space. That more than doubles their current space and leaves more room to resign the team’s free agents.
It also makes room to trade for the quarterback of right now, not so much the future.
The Lions have fired their coach and GM. The new regime will probably want to draft their own guy and that leaves the 32-year-old on the roster bubble. The 49ers lost the Super Bowl because Jimmy couldn’t make “the” throw to put the game out of reach.
Stafford, on the other hand, can make every throw.
San Fran will potentially have nine picks in the 2021 draft including three 5th round picks.They have enough ammo to get Stafford and give Detroir more opportunities to get younger.
The 49ers look to be contenders next year no matter who is behind center. Stafford makes life a lot easier for Shanahan, though.
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