5 San Francisco 49ers who won't be back after heartbreaking Super Bowl loss

3. Ross Dwelley, TE

Tight end Ross Dwelley has been a fixture on the San Francisco roster since he made his debut in the 2018 season. By all accounts, he's a beloved presence in the team's locker room and we've seen him make a play here and there throughout his career. But at a certain point, emotional ties can't affect business decisions and that's what Lynch needs to make when it comes to the veteran.

Dwelley has never had a substantial role in the offense as a pass-catcher, especially with George Kittle in the fold, but it's gotten even more dramatic in the past few seasons.

The veteran tight end has played in 41 games over the past three seasons but has garnered only 12 targets in the regular season over that span. Sure, he's caught nine of those passes for a decent 168 yards and two touchdowns, which is efficient given the limited amount of work, but he's just simply not someone who affects the game in terms of his pass-catching.

A counter-argument might be that Dwelley has been valuable as a blocker, especially with some shortcomings on the 49ers offensive line. But one has to expect San Francisco to pursue upgrades, perhaps on the first two days of the draft, to address that problem and make having the extra blocker out there less necessary. And even if it remains necessary, Dwelley still might be getting pushed out.

After the 49ers drafted a pair of tight ends in the 2023 draft, Cameron Latu out of Alabama and Brayden Willis out of Oklahoma, in addition to young Cade Woerner already being on the roster, it's seemed like Lynch has been developing a runway to move on from Dwelley. Again, with financial constraints being at the forefront of the offseason for this franchise, it doesn't seem all too viable to bring the 29-year-old back into the fold.