15 49ers Who Could Leave After 2020: Part 1
The 49ers named the upcoming season “The Revenge Tour.”
It’s their opportunity to win the Super Bowl and prove they should have won it last season, too, even though the Chiefs beat them by 11 points.
The 49ers believe they’re better than the Chiefs. So the 49ers brought back as much of their 2019 team as possible to make one more run at the Super Bowl in 2020 and validate their place in football history.
The 49ers may or may not win the Super Bowl next season -- we’ll find out. But we know for certain the revenge tour will end after 2020, because next season will be the last season the 49ers can keep this group of people together. In 2021, 15 prominent 49ers could leave.
This is Part 1 of a three-part series analyzing the important people the 49ers could cut, trade or lose after 2020. Each part will contain five people.
Here are the first-five people who could leave the 49ers after 2020.
1. Defensive End Dee Ford.
When Ford is healthy, he arguably is the most valuable defensive player on the 49ers defense because he’s unique. He’s a speed rusher on a team full of methodical power rushers. He gets to the quarterback first. So even if Ford misses the quarterback, Ford forces him to move and hold the ball, which gives the other pass rushers time to sack him.
But Ford is not a good run-defender, he’s not a starter and he has a degenerative knee. Last season, he played fewer than 300 defensive snaps.
And the 49ers pay him $17 million per season.
Speed-rushers who come off the bench should cost much less than $17 million per season. The 49ers signed Ford to be a three-down player, but he’s not one. Next year, they can cut him, save $12.8 million in cap space and sign a cheaper, younger speed-rusher who has two good knees.
Ford almost certainly will not play for the 49ers after next season.
2. Linebacker Kwon Alexander.
The 49ers were desperate to sign a linebacker to replace Reuben Foster, so they gave Alexander a four-year, $54 million contract last year. Alexander is better than Foster, but not worth $13.5 million per season. Not even close.
For starters, Alexander can’t stay healthy. He missed eight games in 2019, 10 games in 2018 and four games in 2017.
Also, Alexander misses lots of tackles. He missed a whopping 19 percent of his tackle opportunities in 2019. His backup, Dre Greenlaw, who makes just $700,000 per season, missed only six percent of his tackle opportunities as a rookie in 2019.
Greenlaw is better than Alexander. Meaning Greenlaw should start at weakside linebacker -- a full-time position -- and Alexander should start at strongside linebacker -- a part-time position that doesn’t play in the nickel defense.
The 49ers can’t afford to pay a Sam linebacker $13.5 million per season -- he doesn’t play enough. If the 49ers cut Alexander after 2020, they’ll save more than $6 million in cap space.
Alexander seems like another goner.
3. Strong safety Jaquiski Tartt.
Tartt is a solid player, and the 49ers defense always performs better when he’s on the field than when he’s not.
But like Alexander, Tartt can’t stay healthy -- he missed four games in 2019, eight games in 2018 and seven games in 2017. And he has intercepted just three passes during his five-season career. And he probably will get a raise in 2021 -- he’s a high-profile player on a high-profile defense.
But I sincerely doubt the 49ers will give Tartt that raise. Some other team will.
The 49ers just gave starting free safety Jimmie Ward a three-year, $28.5 million contract this offseason, so they probably can’t afford to re-sign Tartt, too. They don’t have cap space for two expensive safeties. Plus, they have backup safety Tarvarius Moore, a third-round pick in 2018 who earns just $800,000 per season.
Unless Tartt gives the 49ers a home-time discount, he probably will sign somewhere else in 2021, and Moore will replace him in the 49ers’ defense.
4. Cornerback Richard Sherman.
Like Tartt, Sherman will be a free agent in 2021.
But by that time, Sherman will be 33 -- extremely old for a cornerback. He might need to move to safety. And he’s not fast enough to play free safety in the 49ers’ defense -- he can’t cover enough ground. He’s barely fast enough to play cornerback for them.
When the 49ers signed Sherman in 2018, they knew he was entering the final stretch of his career. They probably didn’t expect to get more than three good seasons from him. He had torn his Achilles.
Sherman has exceeded expectations on the 49ers, and has made a stronger case that he deserves induction into the Hall of Fame when he retires. But in 2021, the 49ers most likely will rebuild their secondary without him.
Nothing personal.
5. Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh.
Saleh should be gone already.
He should be the Browns head coach right now. But they hired Kevin Stefanski, the coordinator of a Vikings offense that picked up just seven first downs in a playoff game against Saleh’s defense just a few months ago. Seriously.
Saleh arguably was the 49ers’ top coach last season. He ran the best unit on the team -- the defense -- and received the most face-time on television by far. The national media obsessed over him.
The 49ers are lucky to have Saleh for 2020. He will be one of the top head-coach candidates in the league again next season, and probably will get a job if an organization smarter than the Browns interviews him.
The 49ers seem to know Saleh will leave after 2020. So they spent most of the offseason building up their offense. Used just one draft pick on a defensive player.
Shanahan and the offense will have to carry the 49ers from 2021 on.
