The San Francisco 49ers are going to be connected to numerous free agents this week thanks to a lot of cap space, a lot of needs, and momentum as a team players want to go to. This doesn’t mean the 49ers will sign many, or even any, of the big names, but it won’t stop reports from surfacing.
General manager John Lynch tried to tamper expectations a bit in a recent interview with NFL Network reporter Steve Wyche. The two spoke on NFL Network Monday morning, and Lynch told Wyche the team was not going to go after “the splash names” in free agency. You can watch the video above, but here are Wyche’s pertinent comments:
“In speaking to John Lynch, he made it sound like -- and remember, the Niners have a boatload of money under the salary cap to pursue free agents -- that they are not going to go after any of what Lynch liked to say, ‘the splash names.’ Maybe that includes Robinson, just not sure. But they’re gonna try to build this roster with seemingly some more marginal-type of free agents.”
The 49ers very well could focus on finding lesser known names to fit some key spots, but this could also be Lynch playing things close to the vest. Of course, it also depends on who one would define as a “splash free name.” Is Dion Lewis a splash name? Or would that label primarily apply to guys like Allen Robinson and Andrew Norwell? The 49ers are not going to be going after Kirk Cousins, Trumaine Johnson, or Malcolm Butler, so it kind of limits what exactly would be a “splash name” in certain respects.
Things are relatively quiet for the time being. The 49ers are reportedly interested in Robinson, Norwell, and Lewis, but we have not heard anything else in regards to impending visits or negotiations. And so, we will be left to wait to see how Wednesday and the rest of the week play out.