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The 49ers are Expected to Release Defensive End Yetur Gross-Matos

The 49ers most likely will overhaul their defensive line this offseason.

Grant Cohn

Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (94) on the sidelines during the third quarter against the New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (94) on the sidelines during the third quarter against the New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images / Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
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The 49ers most likely will overhaul their defensive line this offseason.

They're going to release defensive tackle Javon Hargrave with a post-June-1 designation to save more than $2 million in cap space. In addition, NFL.com's Matt Okada expects them to release defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos as well.

"While Deebo Samuel's fate remains up in the air, there aren’t any other particularly exciting cut candidates for the 49ers, whose 2024 season was wrecked by injuries but otherwise have a mostly established roster (when healthy) and plenty of projected cap space, at least until Brock Purdy is extended," writes Okada.

"Gross-Matos might be worth cutting just from a value perspective after he played 54 percent of the team's defensive snaps in 2024 and logged just four sacks, 19 tackles and 10 QB pressures. With a $9.5 million cap hit in 2025, that kind of production is simply not good enough.

"This move is much more appealing if he's designated as a post-June-1 cut, opening up a valuable $7.8 million in cap savings, but then again, one of San Francisco's two post-June 1 slots is already ticketed for Javon Hargrave, and it's possible the other is used on Samuel. The Niners could just call it a day and move on from Gross-Matos for $2.9 million in savings right away."

To be clear, Gross-Matos played 54 percent of the team's defensive snaps WHEN HEALTHY. He also missed six games. So in total, he played just 368 snaps, which is a typical season for him. He has played at least 500 snaps in a season just once in his five-year career. He can't stay on the field.

Either Gross-Matos will take a massive pay cut or the 49ers will release him. Expect the latter to happen. New defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has no ties to Gross-Matos and probably wants to bring in someone he can handpick.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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