John Lynch Explains Why the 49ers Couldn't Keep Arik Armstead

ORLANDO -- Arik Armstead said he feels "extremely disrespected" by the 49ers after they released him.

This week at the NFL Annual Meeting, 49ers GM John Lynch explained why Armstead feels so disrespected.

LYNCH: "Tough one. We've been fortunate to draft and acquire a lot of really talented players and we've rewarded a lot of them. Some realities come to bear that you can't keep everybody, and so you have to make some tough judgments. We worked with Arik, really appreciative of him and his family and representative trying to work something out and restructure his contract. Took a couple different whacks at a couple ideas, but ultimately he wanted to go see what his value was, and good for him because it was robust. You saw what he got in Jacksonville. He bet on himself, and good for Arik.

"We just made a decision, and part of it was that he had missed some games. That happens, but at his number, we had to adjust it. We made that trade for Maliek Collins, and so we wish Arik nothing but the best. Those are tough decisions. Arik has done so much for our team, he's such a fabric of who we are as a team, the work he does in the community, the opportunity for him to be up on that 10-year wall, that was important to me, it was important to our organization and it was important to Arik, but ultimately he chose to bet on himself, and I think he made a good call, because his market was there. Happy for him and his family, and always will be grateful for everything he has given us."