The 49ers find themselves in a precarious position this offseason. They’re low on draft capital with limited salary cap space to work with. However, they don’t have an ample list of needs to address on their roster that went to the Super Bowl last season.
Limited offseason resources means the 49ers have to be diligent about what areas of their roster they address. They have several pending free agents like Arik Armstead, Jimmie Ward and Emmanuel Sanders that they’ll aim to re-sign, but larger moves beyond that may not be feasible.
We went through the 49ers’ roster and picked out some positions they can afford to avoid this offseason:
Quarterback
While talk of the 49ers’ quarterback situation has dominated offseason headlines, the position is not one the team needs to address this offseason. Jimmy Garoppolo is going into the offseason fully healthy and coming off a 13-3 season capped with a Super Bowl trip. Backups Nick Mullens and CJ Beathard are fine in an emergency situation. Despite talk of Garoppolo’s future with the team, they don’t need to add anyone in free agency or the draft.
Linebacker
The 49ers might wind up adding depth at this spot, but their group of starters – Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw and Kwon Alexander – are set to be among the NFL’s best linebacking corps next season. With Eljiah Lee and Azeez Al-Shaair on track for reserve roles again, San Francisco can afford to enter next season without addressing this spot.
Defensive end
This depends a little bit on what happens in free agency. If the 49ers re-sign both Arik Armstead and Ronald Blair, they can skip addressing the defensive line in the offseason. It would effectively allow them to return the same defensive line that was so dominant during the 2019 season. However, that changes if they lose out on one or both of them. Defensive end will be the biggest domino to fall in the offseason for the 49ers, and it’ll determine how they’re able to operate throughout free agency and the draft.
Tight end
There’s an argument to be made that San Francisco could improve their tight end depth. Ross Dwelley, Levine Toilolo and Garrett Celek worked as the primary reserve tight ends last season, but Celek retired and Toilolo is an unrestricted free agent. That’d leave San Francisco with George Kittle, Dwelley and second-year undrafted free agent Daniel Helm. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk can take on some of the responsibilities if Toilolo doesn’t re-sign, and wide receiver Jalen Hurd may wind up taking on some tight end snaps. While adding additional depth would be helpful for the 49ers, it’s not something they need to take care of right away.
Fullback
The 49ers exercised their team option on fullback Kyle Juszczyk. He’s likely going to get an extension at some point, so adding another fullback now isn’t something San Francisco needs to do. They also have players like Kittle and Dwelley who can step into that role like they did last season when Juszczyk was out with an injury. The fullback is important in the 49ers’ offense, but not important enough to spend resources on it this offseason.
