© Kyle Terada | 2020 Oct 11
Adding reinforcements before next Tuesday’s November 3rd trade deadline my prove tricky for the 49ers for a simple reason: They are out of cash.
As John Lynch said on KNBR earlier in the year, targeting big name players on the trading block has been virtually impossible due to the team’s current cap situation, one that has been exacerbated by the amount of players they’ve had to sign from the practice squad due to injuries.
“They don’t have any money,” 49ers beat writer Dave Lombardi said on Papa & Lund Tuesday morning. “They have exhausted the financial resources as things stand right now, because they’ve had to make so many microtransactions this year due to the injury situation.
“They re-structured Dee Ford’s deal heading into the year, and that opened about $9.55 million of room.
They’ve needed every single penny of that to call up guys every week from the practice squad or sign Ziggy Ansah, that cost them like $1.3 million, and obviously didn’t get them the return on investment there when he tore his bicep.
“The money has circled down the drain this year. There is none left when it comes to salary cap space.”
This leaves the 49ers with limited options in adding to their roster, but Lombardi explained that there are still a few paths forward. Especially if the 49ers want to add a few draft picks, which could prove crucial for the future.
“They can restructure another player. They did Laken Tomlinson last week to be able to survive the week. Obviously that money left really quickly as well. I would expect them to maybe find some guaranteed money on the roster for this season that they don’t think will hurt them too much moving forward, convert that into an immediate bonus payout, and make some room that way. They’ll probably need that just to do standard week-to-week activity.
“Or they can do what you suggested which is trade while offloading salary. I don’t know, a guy like Jaquiski Tartt, he’s not going to be under contract next season, maybe somebody is interested in him and the 49ers have safety depth. Just speculating.
“The 49ers are in a tricky spot because they are contenders as well, so you see where you’re really deep, and you see where you might be able to pick up a draft pick and also save some money. I think the key for the team at the trade deadline is the next draft, because that’s how the team is going to be sustainable moving forward. The cap is going down next season and we also know that the 49ers had hardly any draft picks last year. They want to stockpile those draft picks because that’s the cheap sustainable way to build a roster, and there are going to be a lot of holes on this roster next season especially in the secondary.
“I think any move they make, they are going to want a draft pick coming back.”
Listen to the full interview below.