John Lynch Says That Jordan Mason Beat out Trey Sermon for a Spot on the 49ers

Trey Sermon was unsurprisingly waived Wednesday by the 49ers on Wednesday.

Sermon just could never hit his stride and make the leaps that the 49ers wanted to see out of him. While waiving him wasn’t a surprise, it’s still curious to hear the explanation for why the 49ers did it. Turns out that the decision to waive Sermon had a lot to do with undrafted free agent Jordan Mason.

“The bottom line, Mason just played too well, and we felt like he made our team better,” John Lynch said. “And the hard part of that equation is on Trey, it's been much chronicled, his readiness last year. Not that he wasn't ready, he wasn't ready to play like we felt we needed him to last year. To Trey's credit, he was challenged and he answered the bell in every way this year. And so, I’m really proud of Trey for that. We got this kid out of Georgia Tech as a backup, and we couldn't deny it at the end of the day that he hadn't earned a spot on the roster. What Mason becomes; I don't know. We're very encouraged and we think that he's really going to be a good football player for us. He runs in our style. And ultimately, it came down to that. Now we were going to, when we decided to keep Trey on the original 53, we were going to ride it as long as we could.”

Mason has been a clear fit in the offensive system that Kyle Shanahan runs. He never looked out of place once compared to Sermon. Keeping him aboard the roster for the final cuts was the right decision. Initially I feared the 49ers would’ve let his talents be sent away with the final roster cuts, but they clearly saw that he’s a player who can contribute.

Sermon was moreso a player the 49ers wanted to keep because they invested so much in him by trading multiple fourth-round draft picks and taking him in the third-round. The 49ers wanted Sermon back on the practice squad, but Sermon was scooped up by the Eagles Thursday.