49ers Sign WR Malik Turner
The 49ers hosted two veteran wide receivers on visits last week. Both are now signed. Following Marcus Johnson‘s agreement, the 49ers announced they signed Malik Turner on Monday.
Turner also agreed to a one-year deal. The former UDFA will join his third team, coming to San Francisco after two-year stays in Seattle and Dallas.
A University of Illinois product, Turner has worked as a backup and special-teamer for most of his career. The 6-foot-2 pass catcher has 29 career receptions for 414 yards and four touchdowns. Three of those TDs came last season, though each occurred in lopsided contests — two in a loss to the Broncos and one in the Cowboys’ 56-point outing against Washington. Turner, 26, also participated on 59% of the Cowboys’ special teams plays.
Both Turner and Johnson stand to compete for backup jobs with the 49ers. San Francisco has its top three receivers — Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings — under contract. That said, Samuel was frequently used in the backfield last season; Aiyuk produced an inconsistent sophomore campaign; Jennings is a former seventh-round pick who missed his rookie year. The team adding veteran help makes sense. Johnson and Turner join ex-Steelers return man/slot player Ray-Ray McCloud as 49ers offseason receiver additions.
49ers, WR Marcus Johnson Agree To Deal
The 49ers hosted a pair of wide receivers on visits this week and agreed to terms with one of them. Marcus Johnson is signing with San Francisco, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets.
This will end a lengthy AFC South stay for Johnson, who spent last season with the Titans and the previous three with the Colts. Johnson, 27, is on track for his sixth NFL season. He and Malik Turner visited the 49ers earlier this week.
Part of an Eagles-Colts trade in 2018, the former UDFA is coming off a season in which he was placed on IR twice. In between those stints, Johnson made a notable contribution for a Tennessee team playing without A.J. Brown and Julio Jones. Johnson’s five-catch, 100-yard day helped the Titans to a narrow win over the Saints, a victory that ended up mattering significantly in the AFC South champions’ pursuit of the conference’s No. 1 seed. Johnson landed on season-ending IR shortly after that performance.
A Texas alum, Johnson served as a part-time contributor with the Colts during Jacoby Brissett‘s second starter season and Philip Rivers‘ Indianapolis one-off. Between the 2019 and ’20 slates, the 6-foot-1 target combined for 31 receptions, 532 yards and three touchdowns.
San Francisco has a low-cost receiver room, at the moment, and is set to return its top pass catchers from 2021. Deebo Samuel‘s status figures to change that, with the team planning an extension — one that may now be more costly, given the receiver market’s early-offseason explosion — for its versatile star. The 49ers have Brandon Aiyuk under contract through at least 2023, and emerging complementary performer Jauan Jennings is attached to an ERFA tender — one he has not yet signed.
49ers Host Kemoko Turay
Kemoko Turay recently made another free agent visit. The pass rusher met with the 49ers, per ESPN’s Field Yates (Twitter link). 
Turay visited the Falcons last week alongside linebacker Rashaan Evans. The latter has since signed with Atlanta, so their interest in Turay was clearly more lukewarm. The fact that he had another sit-down demonstrates that there is still at least a modest market for his services, though.
The 26-year-old was a second-round pick of the Colts in 2018. In his four seasons in Indianapolis, Turay operated as a rotational edge rusher. He saw the most playing time in his rookie campaign, with 383 snaps; his snap percentage never topped 33% after that, however. In spite of his limited role, the 2021 season saw him register a career-high 5.5 sacks, something which has teams intrigued by his upside.
If Turay does land in San Francisco, he could help fill a void in their pass-rush department. It came out last week that Dee Ford is all-but guaranteed to be let go by the team. While the 49ers will still have Nick Bosa as the focal point of their edge group, Ford’s release will leave a vacancy on their defense. Turay would likely represent a low-cost depth option who could help step in to that opening.
49ers Host Marcus Johnson, Malik Turner
On Wednesday, the 49ers met with free agent wide receivers Marcus Johnson and Malik Turner (Twitter link via Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network). There’s no deal just yet, but both players could be considered for spots on SF’s 90-man offseason roster.
[RELATED: Frank Gore To Retire]
Turner, fresh off of a recent meeting with the rival Cardinals, first entered the league in 2018 as an undrafted free agent with the Seahawks. He saw time in 21 games for Seattle between 2018 and 2019, followed by 20 games with the Cowboys (2020 and 2021). He’s spent the bulk of his time on special teams, though he’s notched 29 receptions for 414 yards and four touchdowns over the course of his career.
It’s a similar story for Johnson, who has 51 catches, 839 receiving yards, and three touchdowns to his credit across five seasons with the Eagles, Colts, and Titans. Although his sample size is limited, Johnson has shown that he can be a real deep threat. He’s averaged 16.5 yards per catch as a pro, including 2020 when he posted 18.2 ypc for the Colts.
In other team news, longtime 49ers legend Frank Gore finally decided to call it a career on Sunday. Gore, 39 in May, leaves the game with exactly 16,000 regular season yards and a career 4.3 yards per carry average.
Frank Gore To Retire
Ageless running back Frank Gore has decided to call it a career. In an interview on TheSFNiners podcast (video link), Gore said that, within the next several months, he will sign a one-day contract with the 49ers and officially announce his retirement.
San Francisco selected Gore in the third round of the 2005 draft, and though he appeared in 14 games in his rookie campaign, he started just one, operating as part of an RB tandem with Kevan Barlow. Prior to the 2006 season, the Niners traded Barlow to the Jets, thereby clearing the way for Gore to take over as a full-time starter, a role he held for nine seasons in the Bay Area.
During that time, the Miami product established himself as one of the best, and most consistent, backs in the league. He racked up all five of his Pro Bowl nominations, and he averaged over 1,160 yards per season on a robust 4.5 yards-per-carry average. That stretch included eight seasons of 1,000+ yards, and the only year in which he did not hit that benchmark was 2010, when he appeared in just 11 games due to a hip injury.
Gore, who will turn 39 in May, was also an effective receiver out of the backfield, particularly in the early days of his career. From 2006-10, he averaged 51 catches and just over 430 receiving yards per season, which, when added to his rushing output, made him a true dual threat. The 2006 season was especially productive, as he generated 2,180 all-purpose yards and nine total TDs. Though he was never a prolific touchdown producer — just one season of 10 or more combined rushing and receiving scores — he did find paydirt an even 100 times in his regular season career (81 on the ground, 18 through the air, and one fumble recovery).
After Gore’s tremendous run with the 49ers — he is now the franchise’s all-team leading rusher by a wide margin — he began the second chapter of his career by signing a three-year, $12MM deal with the Colts in March 2015. He was still productive during his three years in Indianapolis, as he did not miss a game and averaged nearly 1,000 rushing yards per season to go along with 263 rushing yards per year, but he did not post a YPC rate above 3.9.
Gore ended his career with a tour of the AFC East, hooking on with the Dolphins in 2018, the Bills in 2019, and the Jets in 2020. The 2018 season in Miami was a bit of a throwback, as he played in 14 games (all starts) and rushed for 722 yards on 156 totes, good for a 4.6 YPC average.
Despite all of his individual successes, Gore was not fortunate enough to play for many championship contenders. In 16 NFL seasons, he suited up for just four playoff outfits (the 49ers from 2011-13 and the Bills in 2019). He did get to participate in Super Bowl XLVII with San Francisco at the end of the 2012 season, but the Niners came out on the losing end of that contest. Gore at least held up his end of the bargain, rushing for 319 yards and four TDs on 63 carries in the team’s three-game postseason run.
In all, Gore rushed for exactly 16,000 yards in the regular season, which gives him a beautifully round 1,000 yards/season average and positions him behind only Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton on the all-time list. He supported that total with a 4.3 YPC mark, thereby demonstrating that his production was not driven just by his remarkable longevity.
Per Spotrac, Gore earned over $63MM in his playing career, and he indicated on the podcast that he hopes to move into a front office role. He said, “I told [49ers CEO] Jed York that I always wanted to be a Niner, so we’re working on [the one-day contract] right now, and then we’re going to also sit down with me and my agent to talk about me working in the front office. I love looking at talent, and I love evaluating talent, and I love ball.”
We here at PFR congratulate Gore on a terrific career — which may ultimately end with a Hall of Fame bust in Canton — and wish him all the best in his front office endeavors.
Latest On Deebo Samuel
After his most productive season to date, Deebo Samuel is eligible for a new contract for the first time in his career. Given the recent shifts in the WR market, he should be in line for a healthy raise relative to his rookie deal. On that point, NBC Sports’ Matt Maiocco recently wrote about the terms he should be receiving shortly. 
[RELATED: 49ers Planning Extensions For Bosa, Samuel]
General manager John Lynch has already made it clear that new deals for both Samuel and fellow 2019 draftee Nick Bosa have been “budgeted for”. The former second rounder stood out in his rookie season, posting 961 scrimmage yards. That was followed by an injury-marred 2020 campaign, but he had a breakout year this past season.
The South Carolina alum totalled 77 catches for 1,405 yards and six touchdowns, good for a league-leading average of 18.2 yards per reception. Taking on a larger role in the team’s run game down the stretch, however, he added another 365 yards and eight scores on the ground. During San Francisco’s run to the NFC title game, Samuel recorded 291 combined yards and two total touchdowns in three games.
That production, as Maiocco notes, should elevate the All-Pro ‘wide-back’ near the top of the league in terms of annual compensation. The position has seen a number of market-shifting contracts in recent weeks, most notably the deals given to Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams. Extensions signed by the likes of D.J. Moore, Chris Godwin and Mike Williams have also reached the $20MM-per-year plateau.
Keeping in mind the aforementioned deals, Maiocco writes that “the true numbers on Samuel’s contract extension can be expected to be no lower than $22MM per season and, probably, no higher than $24MM annually”. Those figures would place him just short of the top spot at the position. If both sides can begin negotiations in that range, though, there could rightfully be “plenty of optimism” that a long-term pact can be finalized before the start of the 2022 season.
49ers CEO: Jimmy Garoppolo, Trey Lance Can Coexist For Second Season
John Lynch said this week the 49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo plan has changed. The team hoped to unload its longtime starter after the bigger quarterback dominoes fell, but Garoppolo’s shoulder surgery and a shrinking market has this situation at a standstill.
The 49ers do not plan to release Garoppolo, though the team ($1.8MM in cap space) is limited by carrying his $26.9MM cap number on the books. His salary does not become locked in until the vested-veteran guarantee date just before Week 1. That gives the 49ers time, but they are now no longer ruling out a second season with Garoppolo and Trey Lance on the roster.
“It’s professional sports. If Steve Young can sit on the bench for four seasons — Steve Young is a Hall of Famer,” 49ers CEO Jed York said, via NBC Sports’ Jennifer Lee Chan. “If he is willing to do it, and he has the competitive will to do it, why can’t somebody else?
“I think those two drove each other in the late ’80s and early ’90s to be the best that they could possibly be. If that’s the situation that we have and that’s what is created, sign me up for that problem any day.”
This refers to the 49ers’ four-year setup in which Young backed up Joe Montana, who held off the younger passer’s challenges for the job. The two flipped roles after injuries sidelined Montana in 1991, prior to a 1993 Montana trade to the Chiefs. The two Hall of Fame-bound QBs were on San Francisco’s roster together for six seasons. A Garoppolo-Lance competition obviously resides nowhere near the skill level the Montana-Young late-’80s battles did, but York mentioning the two passers vying for the job is interesting considering where San Francisco’s QB outlook stood after the NFC championship game.
Lance has received the impression the 2022 starting job will be his, and Garoppolo was openly discussing trade destinations in February. Should Garoppolo remain with the team into training camp, Lance’s grip on the job could loosen. The Division I-FCS prospect did not usurp an injury-plagued Garoppolo last season, but the latter’s right shoulder rehab will allow for the former No. 3 overall pick to receive extensive offseason reps. Garoppolo would be an expensive insurance policy, but with the 49ers coming off their second NFL championship appearance in three years, turning the keys over to an untested QB will bring risk. It does not look like this saga will conclude for a while.
Latest On 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo
Many pundits believed Jimmy Garoppolo would be on a different team by now, but the quarterback remains on the 49ers. When speaking with reporters today (including Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle), GM John Lynch revealed some details about trade negotiations, noting that the 49ers were discussing a deal in late February that ended up being derailed by Garoppolo’s surgery.
Now, with the quarterback carousel mostly complete, Lynch admitted that the front office is holding still on the Garoppolo front until a trade materializes. The GM even noted that Garappolo could enter the season on the 49ers roster, and he rejected the notion that the organization would release the veteran QB.
“I don’t foresee that,” Lynch said. “He’s too good a player. I think Jimmy will be playing for us or will be playing for someone else. He’s too good of a player not tyear’s draft. o be.”
Naturally, this wasn’t the intended plan after the 49ers gave up a boatload of picks to draft Trey Lance during last year’s draft. Lynch admitted as much when speaking with reporters.
“We value strength at that position,” Lynch said. “To be completely forthright, though, when you make a trade of that magnitude (for Lance), most of our options did not include Jimmy on our books (in 2022)…But you always have to adapt and a series of events happened that it didn’t work out. But that’s not a bad thing, though. We feel positive with it. And we’ll make it work.”
Albert Breer of SI.com provides some more insight into the QB situation, noting that Garoppolo’s shoulder has been the biggest factor in the 49ers’ trade difficulties. The plan was to trade the veteran after the “big quarterback dominoes fell,” but the injury changed things.
49ers Re-Sign TE Ross Dwelley
The 49ers are bringing back their backup tight end. The 49ers announced that they have re-signed tight end Ross Dwelley. It’s a one-year deal for the 27-year-old.
Dwelley joined the 49ers as an undrafted free agent out of San Diego in 2018. He’s spent his entire four-year career in San Francisco, seeing time in 60 games (17 starts). In addition to having a part-time job on offense, Dwelley has also had a consistent role on special teams.
2020 was Dwelley’s best offensive season as he filled in for George Kittle. Dwelley finished that season with 19 receptions for 245 yards and one score in 16 games (nine starts). He settled back into a backup role in 2021, hauling in only four catches for 51 yards and one score in 17 games (two starts).
Dwelley will slide behind Kittle on the depth chart in 2021. The 49ers are also rostering Charlie Woerner, Tanner Hudson, and former wideout Jordan Matthews at the position.
Dee Ford Not In 49ers’ 2022 Plans
Dee Ford re-emerged for a stretch last season, but his attempt to bounce back from a lost 2020 campaign again hit an injury wall. As a result, Ford’s 49ers career is almost certainly over.
John Lynch said Monday he does not expect Ford to be with the team next season. Given Ford’s contract situation, a post-June 1 cut will presumably be how the defensive end’s San Francisco run ends.
“I don’t see a lot of hope with him being a factor for us on the field moving forward,” Lynch said, via NBC Sports’ Matt Maiocco. “I think we tried to be as patient as possible, and no fault of Dee, he just ran into a bad situation with his back, where he couldn’t get healthy.
“We’ll figure that out, exactly what the transaction will be. But not enough hope and progress to see him playing for us moving forward.”
The former first-round pick returned to action for six games in 2021, registering three sacks. Ford’s back trouble flared up again, and it shut him down for the season. While Ford played a key role for the 49ers’ Super Bowl LIV-qualifying team, recording 6.5 sacks, he dealt with various injuries that year as well. He saw action in just one 2020 game because of the back malady.
The 49ers initially designed Ford’s five-year, $87.5MM deal in a way that protected them down the line, but after a 2020 restructure, the team ended up keeping the former Chiefs Pro Bowler for two more seasons. The 49ers redid Ford’s deal again in 2021 and adjusted it earlier this month. San Francisco will only be hit with $5.8MM in dead money if Ford is designated as a post-June 1 cut, leaving an extra $8MM-plus in dead money for 2023.