There are teams who are having good offseasons in the early part of NFL free agency, and there is whatever the San Francisco 49ers are doing. Two years removed from winning the NFC and getting to the Super Bowl, San Francisco may be positioning itself for another last-place finish in the NFC West again. They lost so many guys in free agency so far, and just decided to cut Leonard Floyd as well.
The latter move has set the stage for Joey Bosa to join his younger brother Nick's team in free agency. While both have been perennial Pro Bowlers in their NFL careers out of Ohio State, Nick Bosa has been the slightly better, and far more reliable, player. Joey Bosa is approaching 30 years old and struggled to stay on the field in the latter part of his run with the Los Angeles Chargers.
San Francisco may have the No. 11 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, but the 49ers still have to figure out if they seriously want to pay Brock Purdy $60 million in annual salary. This team seems to have missed its Super Bowl window. People have started to turn on head coach Kyle Shanahan already. Now people are starting to question if John Lynch is as good at building a team as everyone thinks he is.
If getting a Bosa Brother reunion in the city by the bay is the 49ers consolation prize, that is brutal!
Joey Bosa is not the answer in free agency for San Francisco 49ers' woes
Where I may stand corrected is that under Lynch, the 49ers have done a better job than most teams of disrupting the passer with one ensemble cast after another in the trenches. It has usually been Nick Bosa on defense and Trent Williams on offense doing the lion's share of the work up front, but players like Floyd have offered immense value as complementary pass-rushers. He hardly ever misses games, and consistently produced eight or 10 sacks a year.
The thing that I keep going back to is San Francisco has not been able to capitalize on one big break after another. Jimmy Garoppolo gets hurt, and you draft Nick Bosa No. 2 out of Ohio State. Trey Lance breaks his leg, but Brock Purdy is right there to be their savior. Mr. Irrelevant to the rescue! You whiff on Solomon Thomas, but you strike gold with George Kittle. It is every bit good and bad here.
Where I think San Francisco is getting screwed in all this is their big draft hits like Kittle and Purdy quickly lose their value when they deserve higher salaries. Everyone wants a slice of the pie, but it is simply not expanding fast enough in a hard salary-capped league. The other issue is that Shanahan is a noted choker in Super Bowls. When the clock strikes the fourth quarter or overtime, he falls apart.
San Francisco may have a bounce-back year, but the bounce back will not be a trip to the Super Bowl.