The 49ers have invested heavily in using the first pick in the last four years to make their leader the force that sets the tone for their team. But without a first- or second-round pick this spring and limited salary cap space, general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan couldn’t improve a position group they thought was just dwindling.
AdvertisementArticle continues below this advertisementSolution? Ask general manager Jed York to reverse course on what has been the franchise’s fiscally conservative approach to free agency this offseason.”Our ownership was discussed,” Lynch said, “because it probably wasn’t in the plans for this year.”And “it” was an $81 million buyout for a 305-pound quarterback bully
.Javon Hargrave, 30, is a Pro Bowl defensive end who had a career-high 11 sacks for the Eagles last season and was a threat in Philadelphia’s 31-7 victory over the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.
The fraud was made possible after the 49ers restructured the contracts of two high-priced players, linebacker Fred Warner and cornerback Charvarius Ward, to create nearly $20 million in salary cap space.”We went to Jed and we talked about, ‘Hey, at some point you’re going to have to retire, but we’d like to continue after that this year,'” Lynch said. ”
“We have a game. changer that we think will improve our team. And Jed and the family supported us and said, “I love it.”.
“He actually said before he knew who it was, ‘I want to change the game when we do this. I don’t want ordinary men. I want to change the game.
” I said, “Well, we’ve got the guy for you.”Hargrave got $40 million guaranteed as part of a four-year deal that included a $23 million signing bonus in his bank And now the expectation is, that the money up front will rebuild the 49ers heavyweight. They ranked 10th in the NFL in sacks, and no player other than All-Pro linebacker Nick Bosa recorded more than five. In their last two playoff games, they had just two sacks, both at the line of scrimmage
.Lynch and Shanahan came to the same conclusion early in the offseason when they discussed ways to improve a 13-4 team that entered the NFC Championship Game on a 12-game winning streak: They could get over the hump by getting the top four. .
back to 2019, when the 49ers reached their last Super Bowl.”Since we got here, our goal has always been to build the D-line, and that’s always been a strength,” Shanahan said. “We feel like we have a really good D-line, but if you go back to 2019 with all four guys, I think we had the best in the league that year. We have taken a small step back in the last two years. Not that we were bad or anything, we just weren’t that dominant.”Lynch said,
“We felt like we were down on the D-line. It wasn’t as dominant as we used to maybe in ’19. We wanted to get back to that.”In 2019, the 49ers added to a front that included Arik Armstead and DeForest Buckner, trading for Pro Bowl pass rusher Dee Ford and drafting Bosa.
The result: All four players had between 6.5 and 10 sacks, and the 49ers finished fifth in the league.Of course, the 49ers traded Buckner to the Colts after the season for financial reasons that went against their philosophy of doing whatever it takes to have a giant defensive line. They tried to fill Buckner’s void a month later by using Javon Kinlaw with the No. 14 pick
. But that cost-cutting cost them their dominance: Kinlaw has 1.5 career sacks but has missed 26 of 50 games with knee problems.Kinlaw’s injuries and ineffectiveness led to the Hargrave trade to join a line that includes Bosa, Armstead and Drake Jackson, last year’s top pick.Hargrave is “a person who can make a difference,” York said. “And when you have a Super Bowl-caliber defensive line, he gives you an opportunity to compete against the best teams in this league.”.
