© Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
The 49ers’ season is over. Normally, Monday would have served as a locker clean out day, but players likely did that before their move to Arizona. They made their way back to Santa Clara on Sunday night, and Monday served as both the last day and first day back in their home facility.
Monday’s roundup of players served as a reminder that much of this team’s core will not return due to salary cap constraints.
Departures on the way, tears already here
- Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has at least four head coaching interviews set up with: Carolina Panthers, Los Angeles Chargers, Detroit Lions, Atlanta Falcons. He is likely to take passing game coordinator Mike Lafleur with him wherever he goes.
- Both vice presidents of player personnel, Adam Peters and Martin Mayhew are expected to interview for general manager jobs. Peters has at least one interview set up with the Panthers and may interview for Denver’s new opening at GM. John Lynch said he expected Mayhew to interview for at least one post.
- Inside linebackers coach DeMeco Ryans will be considered to replace Saleh. Kyle Shanahan said, “It’s a matter of time before DeMeco will be a head coach,” but said that replacing Saleh isn’t scheme dependent. Prospective replacements won’t be ruled out if they coach 3-4 as opposed to 4-3.
- Fullback Kyle Juszczyk was choked up on Monday talking about free agency. He seemed to indicate that while Lynch and Shanahan assured him they value him, they may not be able to afford him. “It’s a sense of unsure,” Juszczyk said. “Not really sure what’s ahead for me. I don’t want it to be a sense of finality. Honestly it’s just a lot of emotions.”
The cap situation
- The salary cap floor is $175 million and Lynch said the 49ers are “operating under the premise” that the cap will be set there. That would be a drop of $23.2 million from this year, and that’s without factoring in the roughly $10 million the cap usually grows by every season. Earlier this year he told KNBR’s Greg Papa he thinks the cap will be in the $180-195 million range.
- Due to that cap drop, the 49ers’ can’t re-sign everyone. The plans have changed:
“That alters some plans,” Lynch said. “We were built to be sustainable to the point where we could pretty much decide, all these good players we could prioritize. Certainly, you always have to do that, but we were set up to have just about everyone back. Now, we just have to be a little more creative in doing so, and I think we’ll figure some things out.”
- Lynch said that as far as a restructure for Jimmy Garoppolo, to potentially guarantee him a substantial amount of money to clear cap space, “we don’t need [cap] room right now.” He was speaking all too literally because they very much do need cap space, but have shown an unwillingness to touch Garoppolo’s money. Currently, he has just $2.8 million guaranteed remaining on his deal and cutting him would save $24.1 million. He left the door open to restructuring his deal, saying, “When we start signing those players, that might be necessary.”
Trent Williams will stay… if the 49ers pay him what he’s worth
It has been clear from the start of this season that Trent Williams loves playing for Kyle Shanahan and would prefer to stay in Sant Clara. He said that the culture forced him to, or at least made him feel like he had to play at full effort in practice. While that might sound like an expectation, he implied it was not always the case in Washington.
If San Francisco pays him the roughly $20 million per year he’s worth, he’ll stay. But he might dip his toes into the waters of free agency to see whether he’s being offered fair value.
“San Francisco is the lead candidate, regardless,” Williams said. “So, whether it’s now or whether it is in free agency, the team has convinced me that it’s better here than it would be there. So, even if it does make it to free agency, it won’t make it because I’m trying to go somewhere else. It may simply be just because I may want to see my value. I’ve spent 11 years in this league and I have yet to see a franchise left tackle go to the open market. I think it’d be interesting to kind of see what that value holds. Regardless, I’ve always maintained the same thing and San Francisco is my number one destination. We’ll see how things work out.”
Vapid assurances of Garoppolo, and his view on returning quickly
Did Jimmy Garoppolo return too quickly? He started to say yes, then in typical Garoppolo fashion, tried to backtrack into saying nothing. But he seemed to recognize, clearly, that he returned before his body was ready. But he said he doesn’t regret the decision.
“Yeah, I mean the first time, yeah,” Garoppolo said. “Yeah, the first time… I think I went two weeks without being out there and it was just something that I don’t like that feeling. I wasn’t used to it and yeah, I just wanted to be out there with my guys. Maybe I rushed it, maybe I didn’t, but I wouldn’t change it.”
Garoppolo said his focus this offseason is “all about availability.” Basically, he’s trying to be healthy. What a goal.
Lynch provided the classic non-assurance assurance that he’ll return, though Shanahan has said, like any position, they’ll see if they can upgrade there.
“Kyle and I both have spoken and spoken fairly directly as to the fact that we expect Jimmy to be our quarterback and that’s consistently met with other stories, but that’s not of concern to us because, as of right now, [CEO] Jed [York] has charged us with being the two guys,” Lynch said. “Obviously, with a lot of input from a lot of people who make those types of decisions and I think we’ve spoken clearly to that.”
Convincing, right? Here’s Garoppolo’s answer on whether he’s received assurances from the two that he’ll return next year, and his opinion on the job speculation.
“Oh yeah. Yeah. I honestly haven’t put too much thought into it,” Garoppolo said. “All those things get said, but at the end of the day, I’m a 49er. I’m here to play quarterback. I’m here to be the quarterback of this team and every day I go out there and try to prove that to my teammates and my coaches. At the end of the day, that’s what really matters. So, the people in this building, I love them. I love every one of them. Like I said before, it’s a great group to be around. John and Kyle, I think they’ve talked to the media and said what they’ve said, and I love those guys for it. Yeah, this is where I want to be and I love it here.”
Shanahan said the 49ers will evaluate the quarterback position more than usual this year, but only because the team has more draft picks than usual and C.J. Beathard (unrestricted) and Nick Mullens (restricted) are free agents.
Sorting through the injury mess
- Lynch said the team will work diligently to see why injuries are such a problem, and while they trust their training staff, they’ll assess them like every other staffing group on the team.
“We are resolute in our belief in [our medical/training staff], but we’re asking everyone to take a hard look, just as you do with the coaching staff, with the personnel staff,” Lynch said. “You self-scout and say, ‘What can we do better?’ We’re going to look. We’re going to turn every page and every detail as to what we can do better and to improve our processes. We’re kind of looking forward to that.”
- There is not really any optimism for Dee Ford, who has been sidelined since Week 2 with a mysterious back injury. He had serious back surgery earlier in his career, and Lynch said the 49ers are “looking for clarity” on his situation. He said he could not guarantee he’d be available by the start of the season.
- Nick Bosa “is doing great in his recovery,” Lynch said. Not much else to add
- Javon Kinlaw’s knee injury is not related to the reported tendinitis he had in college. It was a bone bruise which started to subside late last week, but too late for him to play against Dallas.
The toll of the season, exemplified by Deebo Samuel
Deebo Samuel said he could count on both hands how many times he practiced this year, and pointed to the Jones fracture he suffered in the offseason that set him back. It cost him all of training camp and as someone who has, as pointed out by college coach Will Muschamp, struggled with weight, it was a witches’ brew of issues that prevented him from getting healthy.
The combination of injuries, being stuck in Arizona and COVID-19 restrictions took its toll on Samuel. He said he kept in constant contact with Lynch and Shanahan because he was was down on himself.
“I’m not even gonna lie to you, I got down a lot,” Samuel said. “I talked to Kyle a lot… I use football as a getaway. So when when football was taken away, you just think about everything you’ve been through life and it just kind of breaks you down. I was going through it bad. I talked to John and Kyle almost like, two, three times a week just keep my keep my head on straight.”
Shanahan said that struggle was as a result of Samuel’s love for the game. He also said it can serve as motivation, just as Samuel said it would, to be very proactive about getting healthy in the offseason.
“I think Deebo was hurting because he loves football and then he was stuck in a place where he couldn’t play football and he was only there for football,” Shanahan said. “Deebo doesn’t want to let people down. It’s not that he let anyone down in terms of you’re upset with him, but he knows how important he was to us and he knew how hard it was going to be for us when we did lose him because he was one of the guys getting back that our quarterbacks really needed. Our whole team really needed.
When he pulled his hamstring on that first play of the game, he knows how much that hurt the team which that sucks for a player. Deebo cares a lot about his teammates. Cares a lot about people. He didn’t envision it that way, and I think that reality hit him the last month and how big a deal that is.”
The positive, though, is that Samuel should have a full offseason to get right, and that’s his only focus.
“I never got down mentally like I did after I pulled my hamstring this last game I had,” Samuel said. “It took a toll on my body and it made me realize health is the most important thing in this league and just being available, so I mean this offseason, I’m hitting the ground running.”
Williams, for his part, expects him to surpass whatever expectations there are for him.
“I think he’s gonna be a household name,” Williams said. “He has a chance to go down as a Hall of Fame player.”
Fred Warner’s expectations for 2021
Warner, who should receive his first All-Pro nod this season, sets a high bar for himself. While making his first Pro Bowl was nice, just as making an All-Pro team would be, he set his expectations elsewhere.
“I’d rather be respected than liked,” Warner said. “When I step out there, that’s what I’m playing for is that respect. Ultimately, I’m trying to win a Super Bowl. I’m not playing for Pro Bowls, I’m not playing for All-Pro. I’m playing for that ring on my finger at the end of the year and that’s what hurts the most at the end of this season, knowing that we don’t even have a shot at it. It kills me, it truly does.”
Fred Warner did not mince his words pic.twitter.com/GLIFbbv0nF
— KNBR (@KNBR) January 5, 2021
Lynch made it clear he’s not going to let Warner go.
“We’ll find a way to keep him here,” Lynch said.