The San Francisco 49ers were incredibly aggressive out of the gates in free agency this year, signing seven players and having two more set to sign. It was a departure from recent years where the team has made some day one signings, but did the bulk of their work in the second and third weeks of free agency. No one philosophy is the only way to conduct business, but the 49ers are clearly moving in a different direction as they look to turn over the roster.
General manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan met with the media on Friday to introduce the new players. In Lynch’s intro comments, he spoke about having a plan in mind, and specific kinds of players they wanted. He and Kyle Shanahan worked with the coaching staff and scouts to define the kinds of players they want, bot in terms of physical and mental attributes. They used that to then determine who they would go after, and were aggressive in doing so.
Quarterback Brian Hoyer and wide receiver Pierre Garcon both spoke to the idea of feeling wanted. By all accounts the money made clear they were wanted, but I imagine there was a solid sales job as well in to what they could do wth the 49ers. Hoyer in particularly talked about getting a chance to compete for the starting job, which is something that was not going to be available elsewhere.
We’ll never know exactly how much more they might have been offered than by other teams, but even still, it showed the 49ers wanted them from the get go. Whether they pan out for the prices is something we can analyze next season and beyond. For the time being, the 49ers have a plan and are aggressively pursuing it.