Richburg Targeting Training Camp Return
The 49ers suffered a key loss late in what became their seventh season to end in a Super Bowl berth. Weston Richburg‘s second San Francisco season ended after 13 games with a torn patellar tendon.
Patellar tendon injuries are among the more difficult to surmount, but the 49ers’ starting center is confident he will be back by the start of the 2020 season. Richburg said he will not be able to participate in the 49ers’ offseason program. However, the former Giants second-round pick expects to be ready to return by training camp, per Jennifer Lee Chan of NBC Sports Bay Area.
After losing Richburg in December, the 49ers turned to veteran swing man Ben Garland the rest of the way. The ex-Broncos and Falcons blocker helped the 49ers keep their ground success going, peaking with Raheem Mostert‘s dominant NFC championship game. Garland, however, is a free agent. Richburg’s contract — which the 49ers recently restructured — runs through the 2022 season.
The 2020 season will be Richburg’s age-29 campaign. Pro Football Focus has not viewed Richburg as one of the league’s better centers during his time in San Francisco, grading him as the No. 25 snapper last season. Regardless, Richburg is expected to reprise his role as the 49ers’ first-string center — on an offensive line that also has its other four starters under contract for 2020. Garland, who has played for Kyle Shanahan at multiple stops, will likely be a consideration to return as an insurance option/depth piece.
49ers Rumors: Armstead, Running Backs, Thomas
In his 49ers mailbag, Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports addressed Arik Armstead‘s impending free agency. The seventeenth overall selection in the 2015 NFL Draft struggled early in his career with injuries and consistency but emerged as an integral part of San Francisco’s defensive line over the past two seasons. Armstead has the versatility to play the edge of defensive coordinator Robert Saleh’s 4-3 defense on early downs and then move inside on passing situations.
Armstead has started each of the 49ers last 35 games (playoffs included) and set career-marks this season in sacks (10.0), tackles for loss (11), quarterback hits (18), and tackles (54) as a part of the vaunted Niners defensive front. Now, set for unrestricted free agency, Maiocco downplays the chances San Francisco franchise tags the defensive lineman to trade him. He believes if the team has the cap space to apply the tag, they’ll work out an extension.
Here’s some more rumors out of Santa Clara:
- Matt Barrows and David Lombardi of The Athletic continued their “State of the 49ers” series, this time looking at the team’s running backs. While no halfback amassed 1,000 yards on the season, the team’s depth at the position was obvious to anyone following the team. Tevin Coleman, Matt Breida, and Raheem Mostert all played like the team’s number one back at different points in the season. They place a primary focus on the future of Jerrick McKinnon-who missed the past two seasons with injuries-with the team. If he returns on a team-friendly contract, San Francisco may be comfortable letting Tevin Coleman pursue opportunities elsewhere.
- Following their Super Bowl defeat, the 49ers now face a series of difficult salary-cap decisions. Patrick Holloway of Niners Nation speculates the team could attach a draft pick to defensive lineman Solomon Thomas to save more than $4MM in cap space. Since Thomas was selected with the third overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, his entire contract is guaranteed and the Niners cannot gain any cap relief from releasing him. However, if he were traded, his dead cap hit would be cut in half, saving the team half of his nearly $9MM cap hit.
Kittle Set To Redefine Tight End Market
- We’ve heard that the 49ers plan to make an offseason extension for George Kittle a priority, and it probably can’t be overstated just how much Kittle is going to reset the market. The report from a couple of weeks ago was that Kittle’s floor would be around $13MM annually, and as former NFL agent and current CBS Sports analyst Joel Corry points out, the top of the market has been stuck at around $10MM annually for a while. Corry notes that Jimmy Graham became the first $10MM tight end all the way back in 2014, but that the market has been completely stagnant ever since. In Corry’s piece, which is well worth a read, he takes a look at how the salaries for the position are going to change big time around the league. Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper are about to be free agents, and several other big names are going to get new deals soon. It’ll be very interesting to see what number Kittle ends up getting.
Kwon Alexander Undergoes Bicep Surgery
- 49ers linebacker Kwon Alexander tore a pec in November, and was expected at the time to miss the remainder of the season. He improbably battled his way back with remarkable speed, and ended up being activated off injured reserve for San Francisco’s playoff run. Not only was Alexander dealing with the pec issue, he also played in the playoffs and the Super Bowl with a significant bicep injury that required surgery, sources told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link). Rapsheet reports that Alexander underwent the procedure on his bicep Friday, and will make a full recovery for the 2020 season. The 49ers signed him to a big contract last offseason, and he’s one of their leaders on defense. This kind of grit shows why. Alexander has been bit by the injury bug recently, as his 2018 season in Tampa was cut short by a torn ACL. Hopefully he can stay healthy this year as San Francisco gears up for another run.
49ers Release Ethan Westbrooks
That was fast. Two days after signing Ethan Westbrooks, the 49ers have released the defensive lineman, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. 
It’s not clear why the Niners have reversed course so quickly, but this sort of thing usually happens when players are flagged on their physicals. Soon, we’ll probably hear more on why the NFC champs dropped him.
Westbrooks saw a good amount of playing time for the Rams during his five seasons. In 2017, he saw snaps at multiple DL spots and notched four sacks in 16 games, which included nine starts.
Last year, Westbrooks signed an offseason deal with the Raiders but did not survive final cuts. He didn’t hook on elsewhere after that, leaving him out of football in 2019.
The Niners will turn their attention to more pressing matters on the defensive line, starting with Arik Armstead‘s impending free agency.
49ers Sign Veteran DL Ethan Westbrooks
The 49ers have agreed to a one-year contract with veteran defensive lineman Ethan Westbrooks, according to Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area. Westbrooks currently looks like just a depth piece for a stacked San Francisco D-line, but this offseason could spur a lot of movement along the Niners front and open up a clearer spot for their newest addition.
Westbrooks spent the first five seasons of his career with the Rams from 2014-2018. Over his time there, he appeared in 67 games (making 11 starts) and amassed 79 tackles, 26 quarterback hits, 20 tackles for loss, 9 sacks, and a 77-yard fumble recovery returned for a touchdown.
During his tenure with the Rams organization, Westbrooks did make headlines after he was arrested for suspicion of domestic violence in March of 2017. The Sacramento County District Attorney declined to press charges a week later and Westbrooks was never reprimanded by the league. He returned to the Rams in the 2018 season and there have been no other reported incidents.
While Westbrooks should not factor in as a starter for San Francisco, the team will have some tough decisions to make on their salary cap following their loss in Super Bowl LIV. Starter Arik Armstead and rotation player Ronald Blair are set for free-agency, DeForrest Buckner is due for an extension while Dee Ford and Solomon Thomas both could be traded to create more cap space. The loss of Armstead, Blair, or Ford all could cause a shuffle along the line opening up potential reps for Westbrooks.
Last season, Westbrooks was released by the Raiders in their final round of cuts and did not catch onto another team’s roster before the end of the season. However, the 49ers should have more familiarity with Westbrooks than the average organization since their director of pro personnel, Ron Carthon, worked for the Rams from 2012-2016.
49ers Rumors: Alexander, Coleman
- 49ers linebacker Kwon Alexander agreed to restructure his contract back in November, but word of the revised deal only started to trickle out recently. According to Over The Cap, the Niners prorated $333K of Alexander’s 2019 salary to signing bonus while adjusting his 2020 salary from $11.25MM to $976K with the rest to be paid as an option bonus on April 1. Meanwhile, three added three voidable years were tacked on. Alexander’s contract will now void on the 5th day of the 2023 waiver period. This will make Alexander an unrestricted free agent in 2023, same as he was scheduled based on the original contract. Ultimately, these changes resulted in $8.1MM in badly needed cap space for the NFC champs.
- 49ers linebacker Kwon Alexander agreed to restructure his contract back in November, but word of the revised deal only started to trickle out recently. According to Over The Cap, the Niners prorated $333K of Alexander’s 2019 salary to signing bonus while adjusting his 2020 salary from $11.25MM to $976K with the rest to be paid as an option bonus on April 1. Meanwhile, three added three voidable years were tacked on. Alexander’s contract will now void on the 5th day of the 2023 waiver period. This will make Alexander an unrestricted free agent in 2023, same as he was scheduled based on the original contract. Ultimately, these changes resulted in $8.1MM in badly needed cap space for the NFC champs.
- Even with the Alexander restructure and tweaks to Weston Richburg‘s deal, SF still has only $13MM to spend. To carve out more room, the 49ers could dump running back Tevin Coleman to create another $4.9MM in space, ESPN.com’s Nick Wagoner suggests. Coleman, 27 in April, averaged 4.0 yards per carry and scored six touchdowns off of 137 totes. Through the air, he had 21 grabs for 180 yards and one score.
Minor NFL Transactions: 2/11/20
Here are today’s minor moves:
Kansas City Chiefs
- Re-signed: WR Gehrig Dieter
New England Patriots
- Signed: DB Lenzy Pipkins
San Francisco 49ers
- Signed: DL Alex Barrett, OL Jake Brendel, OL Jaryd Jones-Smith
49ers Don't Expect To Be Aggressive In Free Agency
The 49ers just lost a Super Bowl in devastating fashion, and now they have to shrug it off and turn their attention to the offseason. San Francisco is in a bit of a cap bind, so they’ll have to get resourceful this spring. They made a big splash last cycle by doling out big contracts to guys like Kwon Alexander, Dee Ford, and Tevin Coleman, and general manager John Lynch recently signaled they won’t be nearly as aggressive this time around. “Those days aren’t happening anymore,” Lynch said, via Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports. “We can’t go to the grocery store and say, ‘I’ll have that, I’ll have that, I’ll have that.’ It is more like, ‘I’ll have that, but I might have to put that back.’ There are tradeoffs.”
Lynch and Kyle Shanahan probably have a trick or two up their sleeve and won’t stand completely pat, but don’t expect them to be big spenders. The 49ers currently have 22 guys set to be free agents, including some high profile ones like Emmanuel Sanders, Arik Armstead, Matt Breida, and Jimmie Ward. It’s likely they won’t be able to re-sign everybody. They’ll mostly be running it back with the same group of guys, and will be counting on Jimmy Garoppolo to guide them back to another Super Bowl.
49ers Lose Assistant, Add Replacement
- After Joe Woods agreed to become the Browns‘ defensive coordinator, he has already secured one 49ers assistant to make the trip to Cleveland with him. Woods will bring in 49ers pass rush specialist Chris Kiffin to serve as Browns defensive line coach, Alex Marvez of Sirius XM Radio reports (on Twitter). The son of longtime NFL DC Monte Kiffin and younger brother of Lane Kiffin, Chris spent the past two seasons with the 49ers. Previously Lane’s DC at Florida Atlantic, Chris has spent most of his career at the college level.
- The 49ers appear to have a replacement lined up. Aaron Whitecotton will join San Francisco’s defensive staff, per Marvez. A Bills assistant for three seasons, Whitecotton worked with 49ers DC Robert Saleh for four seasons in Jacksonville prior to relocating to Buffalo.