Ex-Cal Standout LB Mychal Kendricks Signs With 49ers
Former Cal standout Mychal Kendricks visited the with San Francisco 49ers coaches on Friday and apparently it went well enough for the 49ers to agree to sign the free-agent linebacker.
Kendricks signed a one-year deal worth $1.22 million, which is the minimum for a veteran player who has played seven full NFL seasons. He will receive $200,000 guaranteed and the cap hit is $866,000.
He apparently does not have a roster spot assured, however, and will have to perform well to make the 49ers' 53-man team.
The 30-year-old Kendricks played in one game for the Washington Football Team last season after Washington signed him off the Seattle Seahawks' practice squad in December. His eight defensive plays in that January 9 game against Tampa Bay represent his only playing time since suffering a torn anterior-cruciate ligament late in the 2019 season. He had been a starting inside linebacker for the Seahawks for the first 14 games of that 2019 season.
A bigger obstacle was his 2018 guilty plea to an insider-trading charge. Sentencing for that conviction was delayed multiple times before Kendricks was finally sentenced on July 21 to one day in jail, three years of probation and 300 hours of community service.
That enabled Kendricks to pursue a contract with any NFL team.
Kendricks played for Cal from 2008 through 2011 and was named the conference defensive player of the year in his final season. He was a second-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2012 NFL draft, and one of his teammates with the Eagles was DeMeo Ryans, a former NFL linebacker who is now the 49ers' defensive coordinator.
San Francisco recently signed linebacker Fred Warner to a lucrative contract extension, and Dre Greenlaw is also penciled in to start at linebacker. The 49ers don't seem to be set on a starter for the third linebacker spot in its 4-3 defense.
Kendicks has played both inside and outside linebacker during his NFL career.
.
Cover photo of Mychal Kendricks by Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports
.
Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53
Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by searching: @si.calsportsreport or going to https://www.facebook.com/si.calsportsreport
