Should They Stay Or Go?

49ers should be keeping their own in free agency

- Craig Massei

The 49ers were major players in NFL free agency out of necessity during the first three years of the John Lynch/Kyle Shanahan regime, needing to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars on the open market to bring in established veteran talent to both prop up a dilapidated roster and start building a foundation for the enduring contender they envisioned their team becoming in the future.

That vision and future are now reality after San Francisco’s stunning 2019 surge back to NFL prominence, leaving the team with an entirely different outlook and approach entering 2020 free agency.

With 19 regular starters from a team that reached Super Bowl LIV under contract for 2020, and the roster behind them teeming with quality depth, the 49ers no longer are a team in need looking to fill numerous holes on the open market.

In fact, any significant holes San Francisco might potentially have in its lineup this year could be filled by the very same individuals that played prominent roles at those positions in 2019 to help get the franchise to its seventh Super Bowl appearance.

But those players have earned big paydays, and they won’t come cheaply.

And that’s the quandary for the 49ers as they take their next foray into free agency, because unlike the previous three years, they don’t have money to throw around without constraint on the open market this time.

At the end of February, the 49ers were approximately $18 million under the NFL’s adjusted salary cap for 2020, a figure that ranked 27th in the league. That leaves the team with a lot of decisions to make and a lot of maneuvering to accomplish between then and the March 18 opening of free agency for San Francisco to clear more cap space in hope of keeping its Super Bowl lineup intact — or bring in outside free agents, for that matter.