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The early boxes are being checked in Santa Clara. On Tuesday, the 49ers confirmed a series of very obvious, all-but-official (now official) moves, by exercising a pair of team options on fullback Kyle Juszczyk and nickel corner K’Waun Williams and bringing back a four players on early restricted free agent tenders.
An early restricted free agent is a massive misnomer. It really equates to a year of cheap labor for a team, where the player has zero agency. They can either take the paltry sum (by NFL standards, under $750k), or sit out a year. Technically, they have two options, but in reality, they have one.
The 49ers had six ERFAs, bringing back five of their key players in Nick Mullens, Emmanuel Moseley, Daniel Brunskill, Jeff Wilson Jr. and Ross Dwelley.
The following comes from the 49ers:
The San Francisco 49ers announced on Thursday they have tendered one-year contracts to exclusive rights free agents OL Daniel Brunskill, TE Ross Dwelley, CB Emmanuel Moseley, QB Nick Mullens and RB Jeff Wilson Jr. Additionally, the team exercised the 2020 contract options for FB Kyle Juszczyk and CB K’Waun Williams.
Brunskill (6-5, 300) appeared in 14 games (seven starts) along the 49ers offensive line in 2019, in addition to appearing in all three postseason contests. Dwelley (6-5, 235) registered career highs in games played (16) games started (six), receptions (15), receiving yards (91) and receiving touchdowns (two) in 2019. He also appeared in all three postseason games. Moseley (5-11, 190) appeared in a career-high 16 games (eight starts) and registered 43 tackles, eight passes defensed and one interception to go along with eight special teams tackles. He also appeared in three postseason games (two starts) and added 14 tackles, four passes defensed and one interception. Mullens (6-1, 210) was active for all 16 games and three postseason contests in 2019 and appeared in one game. Wilson Jr. (6-0, 213) appeared in 10 games in 2019 and registered 27 carries for 105 yards and four touchdowns while adding three receptions for 34 yards and one touchdown through the air. He also appeared in one postseason contest and registered one reception for 20 yards.
In 2019, Juszczyk (6-1, 235) was selected to the Pro Bowl for the fourth-consecutive season. He started all 12 games in which he appeared and finished with 20 receptions for 239 yards and one touchdown along with three carries for seven yards on the ground. He also started all three postseason contests and added three receptions for 39 yards and one touchdown. Williams (5-9, 185) appeared in 15 games (eight starts) and finished with 51 tackles, a career-high four forced fumbles, a career-high two interceptions, two passes defensed and one sack. He also saw action in three postseason contests (one start), adding 15 tackles, one forced fumble and one sack.
The one player not offered an early restricted free agent tender was offensive tackle Andrew Lauderdale who was waived/injured at the start of the season.
Besides free agency and Arik Armstead’s potential franchise-tagging, the 49ers will have to decide on which players they will offer restricted free agent tenders to. All three of Matt Breida, Kendrick Bourne and Elijah Lee are restricted free agents.
The 49ers will likely not offer Lee a tender, and offer Breida an original round tender at $2.14 million. Bourne is a bit trickier, given that a team might offer him more than that amount, but there is limited cap space for the 49ers, and a $3.28 million second-round tender (which would reward the 49ers with a second-round pick if another team tried to sign him) could limit other roster moves.