49ers’ new regime isn’t messing around
First-year head coach Kyle Shanahan and new general manager John Lynch surely are hitting the ground running. Fresh off three consecutive offseasons in which the team didn’t much at all in free agency, the floodgates have opened big time in San Francisco.
It started with an under-the-radar move in signing defensive tackle Earl Mitchell earlier this month. Then on Tuesday, this all gave way to an avalanche of interesting signings for the downtrodden organization. The 49ers will reportedly sign quarterback Brian Hoyer, full back Kyle Juszczyk and wide receiver Pierre Garcon when free agency officially gets going on Thursday. They also added speedster Marquise Goodwin from the Buffalo Bills.
These are some huge moves to help fill a major talent vacuum on what was one of the worst offenses in the NFL last season. To add more intrigue here, Hoyer’s signing does not necessarily mean that San Francisco is out of the running for Kirk Cousins in a trade with the aforementioned Redskins (more on that here).
We knew the 49ers would be more active in free agency. They have a completely new personnel team in the front office. Add in the fact that San Francisco boasted $100-plus million heading into free agency, and this was magnified further.
Some will point to Lynch and Co. signing Juszczyk to an absurd $21 million over four years as being ridiculous. But as we mentioned at the outset of this article, there’s a lot of other factors involved here. How is the deal structured? How much is guaranteed? What precise role will the Pro Bowler play?
The same can pretty much be said for Garcon, who will reportedly get $16 million in 2017. This gives San Francisco a ton of cap flexibility moving forward in the rebuilding process.
At the very least, this new 49ers regime is attempting to improve over the short term while creating long-term viability. That’s something we simply didn’t see from the previous regime over the past three years.