Kyle Shanahan "Hated to see" Arik Armstead Leave the 49ers

Arik Armstead leaving the 49ers was due to salary cap purposes and it is one that Kyle Shanahan hated that it happened. Here is what he had to say about the move.

For the first time since 2014, the San Francisco 49ers will not have Arik Armstead on their roster.

The 49ers and Armstead parted ways at the start of free agency after Armstead refused to take a pay cut. As a result, Armstead requested his release in the belief that he could find a similar or better deal in free agency.

Turns out he was right as the Jacksonville Jaguars would sign him to a three-year deal for $43.5 million. It's the unfortunate side of the business as the 49ers really didn't want him to go. On Tuesday at the NFL owner's annual meetings, Kyle Shanahan spoke for the first time on Armstead's release.

"It was real tough," said Shanahan. "We've been with Arik since we got here, and I know he was here a couple years before us. It wasn't something we really wanted to happen. It was one of the tough things in trying to keep the team together and just where the salary cap goes and stuff, but he got into a good spot. I'm real happy for him for where it ended up, but I hated to see him go."

It sounds like Shanahan was really banking on the offers in free agency to be underwhelming for Armstead. That way if they were, he would most likely return on the pay cut request the 49ers wanted from him. But Armstead rolled the dice on himself and it paid off.

The thing is, for the 49ers to release Armstead means that they are okay with him leaving. Whenever a player hits free agency or gets released to simply "test the market" then that team is essentially saying they can move on without him easily.

They have to fully expect that the player is not returning, so as much as Shanahan "hated to see" Armstead go, he ultimately was okay and able to live with it.