Why the 49ers moved on from 17 players during free agency

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- For the better part of the past five years, the San Francisco 49ers' approach to the offseason could be summed up in three simple words: "Run it back."

This year, on the heels of a disappointing 6-11 season, it's something closer to "What is happening?"

In the opening week-plus of free agency, the 49ers have endured an exodus of key players, either by way of release, trade or not paying up.

As of Wednesday night, 15 players who were traded, released or departed as free agents have signed deals that, if they were to reach maximum earnings, would be worth up to $341,522,500. San Francisco, meanwhile, has signed 10 outside free agents to deals that would be worth up to a total of $41,880,000 with an annual average value of $2.388 million, which is lowest in the league. They've fully guaranteed just $4.785 million.

Along with that, the Niners' willingness to cut players with years and dollars left on their contract has yielded a league-high $86,602,800 in dead money on the 2025 salary cap once the post-June 1 releases of defensive tackles Javon Hargrave and Maliek Collins are added to the tab.

This isn't a surprise, though, as 49ers general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan left plenty of clues about their future-focused approach in the weeks before the start of the new league year last week.

"At some point you have to reset a little bit or at least recalibrate," Lynch said. "You can't just keep pressing the pedal, and I think there's some good that could come out [of it]. We need to get younger. I think we were the oldest team in football trying to make a run at the deal last year. And I think it's good to constantly get younger."

Although Lynch never specifically mentioned the word "cheaper," it's inherent in the 49ers' efforts to get younger. For the Niners, it's not just about the salary cap -- though cleaning that up for future years has been a priority -- it's also about cash spending.

In 2024, the 49ers spent $334.5 million in cash on players, the most in the league and well above the $255.5 million salary cap. The spending spree was the result of an offseason in which the Niners gave big-money extensions to running back Christian McCaffrey, left tackle Trent Williams and receiver Brandon Aiyuk, restructured deals for receiver Deebo Samuel Sr. and Hargrave and added multiple eight-figure free agents.

All of those deals involved some form of signing bonus -- money paid out in the first year in cash but counted against the salary cap in equal amounts over the life of the deal -- as well as the addition of option bonuses and void years to lower salary cap numbers.

Such credit card-style spending had become a staple of 49ers offseasons since they became a contender in 2019. They were third in the league in cash spending that year, lost Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs and then spent the next five years doing whatever was necessary to get over the hump, future cap charges be damned.

As the Niners kept coming up short and trying to crack the code, the cost to keep the core of those teams together while adding meaningful outside players grew to a point where few teams in the league spent more. The Niners were sixth in the NFL in cash spending in 2023 and fifth in 2021 and 2020, with the only slight dip coming in 2022 when they were 19th.

Now, the 49ers are looking to recalibrate on the fly.

They began planning for at least some of their departures last year when they drafted receiver Ricky Pearsall, cornerback Renardo Green, guard Dominick Puni, safety Malik Mustapha and running back Isaac Guerendo with an eye toward them replacing Samuel, Charvarius Ward, Aaron Banks, Talanoa Hufanga and Jordan Mason/Elijah Mitchell, respectively, in 2025.

Though those moves were easy enough to anticipate given the contract status of the departed players, the 49ers' struggles throughout 2025 undoubtedly contributed to the decisions to let go of veterans such as Hargrave, Collins and defensive end Leonard Floyd.

Put more simply, the 49ers no longer wanted to pay for players who weren't producing at a level equal to their paychecks and wanted to clear those salaries off the books by 2027. They still have more than $42 million in cap space available but some of that is earmarked for quarterback Brock Purdy's impending contract extension and some could be rolled over to help offset the more than $21 million in dead money already on the books for 2026.

As Shanahan acknowledged in January, significant change is required for the Niners to be competitive in 2025 and beyond.

"You've got to always think right now, but you got to think big picture, too, which to me in football is always on like a two-to-three-year time frame," Shanahan said. "And I think we've been doing that really since we've been here. We've never fully sold out for that year. But we always want to be competitive and feel like we have a chance to do that."

For those who might be skeptical about the 49ers' ability to do that, there's an obvious blueprint to follow. Within the past few years, the Los Angeles Rams have undergone a similar roster revamp.

After winning Super Bowl LVI, the Rams did everything possible to keep that championship team together, leading the league in cash spending ($285.6 million) in 2022 by re-signing mainstays such as quarterback Matthew Staffordandoffensive linemen Joe Noteboom, Brian Allen and Coleman Shelton and shelling out in free agency for receiver Allen Robinson and linebacker Bobby Wagner.

It didn't work. The injury-ravaged Rams dropped to 5-12 and decided to remake the roster with a renewed focus on replenishing through the draft. In 2023, team president Kevin Demoff sent a letter to season-ticket holders asking for patience as they cleaned up their books for what general manager Les Snead called a "remodel."

That offseason, the Rams dropped to No. 32 in the NFL in cash spending ($185.9 million) and ate nearly $80 million in dead money as they released Robinson, Floyd and others and traded cornerback Jalen Ramsey to the Miami Dolphins. Those Rams selected a whopping 14 players in that year's draft, including offensive lineman Steve Avila, linebacker Byron Young, defensive tackle Kobie Turner and receiver Puka Nacua.

After some early bumps, Los Angeles went 10-7 and made the playoffs, a performance it repeated last season after ranking 31st in cash spending in 2024.

Of course, replicating that process is easier said than done. The 49ers haven't gotten much from their 2021, 2022 and 2023 draft classes with the notable exceptions of cornerback Deommodore Lenoir and Purdy. Last year's group offered plenty of promise but there's still much to prove.

San Francisco heads into this year's draft with 11 selections, including No. 11 overall. Hit on a handful of those choices, get continued improvement from young players on the roster to go with a core that includes Purdy, Lenoir, McCaffrey, Williams, tight end George Kittle, linebacker Fred Warner and end Nick Bosa and enjoy better injury luck ... and it's not outrageous that the 49ers could be better in 2025 than their free agent scorecard might indicate.

Farfetched? Perhaps, but ESPN BET still lists the Niners as the favorites (+125) to win the NFC West division and gives just five teams better odds than San Francisco to win the Super Bowl.

"We always want to be competitive now and into the future," Lynch said last month. "I think our thought has always been you grow the core and then you can kind of supplement around that."br/]