3 surprise cuts the 49ers can make this offseason

Cutting Samson Ebukam would be controversial, but it would save some money

Samson Ebukam is coming off a solid first season with the 49ers. He played in all 17 games for San Francisco, matching a career-high with 4.5 sacks. 2022 will be his age-27 season out of Eastern Washington. Though a fairly productive player, he has the chance to be a potential cap casualty based on the amount of space he would free up, as well as a relatively low dead cap hit.

Cutting Ebukam would give the 49ers an addition $6.5 million in savings. Though his dead cap hit does not go down post June 1, that would only be a $1.75 million dead cap hit to begin with. While he is not freeing up anywhere near as much cap space as cutting someone like Garoppolo would, the savings could far outweigh the dead cap number for someone like Ebukam has with the 49ers.

So should the 49ers part ways with Ebukam is the question? Probably not, as a guaranteed 4.5 sacks from a rotational pass rusher is not the worst thing in the world. He is only accounting for 3.93 percent of the salary cap anyway. The production suffices him being on the books to complete his contract, but the opportunity to free up a few extra million dollars is certainly there.

It could go either way with Ebukam playing on an expiring, but the 49ers do need some cap space.