The 49ers got down to the 53-man roster maximum by releasing 24 players in total on Saturday, including former first-round pick Joshua Garnett.
The Niners used the No. 28 pick to select Garnett in 2016, but they never saw much from him at the pro level. The Stanford product started in eleven of his 15 games as a rookie, but even then, his performance was underwhelming – Garnett racked up penalties and didn’t excel in run blocking or pass blocking. Garnett then missed all of 2017 after undergoing knee surgery and only saw action as a reserve in seven games last year. At a rate of $10.35MM, it made little sense to keep Garnett for 2020, especially since the option would have been guaranteed for injury.
This year, Garnett is said to be healthy, but that ensured little in terms of performance, so he’s out. The Niners will save $1.7MM against $1.2MM in dead money.
Jordan Matthews was said to have had a strong camp, but the 27-year-old wide receiver wasn’t able to stick in SF. He inked a one-year, $1.8MM deal with the Niners in March, but he’ll exit with just his $300K signing bonus in hand.
Aside from Garnett and Matthews, here’s the rest of the Niners’ cuts:
Released
DB Antone Exum Jr.
DL Kevin Givens
TE Daniel Helm
WR Malik Henry
LB Elijah Lee
LB David Mayo
OL Najee Toran
RB Jeff Wilson Jr.
Waived/Injured
OL Andrew Lauderdale
Wilson Jr is a surprise to me. He will be swooped up by a team, he looked really good all pre season.
Please stop drafting Stanford guys high. Garnett should’ve been a fourth rounder. Solomon Thomas shouldn’t have been a first rounder never mind top 3. Lynch loves Stanford. Hire an asst gm from there. They don’t have the same caliber players as Alabama or Clemson.
Andrew luck was a better caliber player than anyone from those schools and he was from Stanford. High caliber players come from all schools