In the least surprising news of the offseason, the San Francisco 49ers officially announced the release of cornerback Shawntae Spencer. The move is expected to save the 49ers about $3 million in cap space as they move forward with their offseason plans. They attempted to trade him, but it appears there were no takers. Trent Baalke issued a statement with the release:

"The 49ers would like to thank Shawntae for his eight years of service to the organization and the Bay Area community," said 49ers General Manger Trent Baalke. "He has always represented himself, his family and this organization with the utmost class. We wish him, and his family, the very best."

This really does say it all, even if it is only a few sentences. Shawntae Spencer was the second longest tenured 49er (along with Andy Lee) behind only Brian Jennings. Although Spencer had an up and down career with the 49ers due in large part to injuries, he was always a first class citizen of the Bay Area. That made it easy for me to root for him and hope he would get things on track a bit more consistently. Unfortunately the injury bug would not let go.

This move was expected even before the 49ers re-signed Carlos Rogers and signed Perrish Cox. The team has developed significant depth at the cornerback position, and there was simply no way the team was going to keep a guy around with that kind of cap figure.

Best of luck to Shawntae as he moves forward with his career.