49ers to meet with Carlos Hyde’s agent at the combine

The San Francisco 49ers are expected to meet with Carlos Hyde’s agent at the NFL Combine per a recent tweet by 49ers reporter Matt Maiocco.

Hyde will be entering free agency for the first time in his career in March. More likely than not this meeting will be a discussion of numbers; what the 49ers would like to pay and what Hyde will want for a new contract. Maiocco quoted John Lynch as saying Hyde is, “a good football player...we’ll see what happens”.

If the 49ers were set on letting Hyde walk, there wouldn’t be a combine meeting. The question is how much they think Hyde is worth. While Hyde played his first full season in 2017, he failed to reach his yardage totals from 2016—a season (like others) cut short due to injury.

Hyde’s familiarity with Kyle Shanahan’s offense offers some value. The offense is one of the hardest in the league to learn and having a year of it under his belt puts him ahead of free agents and rookie 1st round picks. There’s also an argument that Hyde played behind a sub-par offensive line in 2017, one that the 49ers are trying to solidify for the 2018 season with the record-setting contract signed by quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. It’s also of note that many games had Hyde sharing—and at times—conceding touches to rookie running back Matt Breida.

The discussions have begun.