The San Francisco 49ers will not be pursuing free agent defensive back Tyrann Mathieu, according to Cam Inman of the San Jose Mercury News. Mathieu was released by the Arizona Cardinals and, given the position he plays and the 49ers’ general manager, there were obvious dots to connect.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were interested, and I’m also not surprised that they are apparently not interested. The 49ers have a very strong group of safeties and a promising group of corners.
They have a very versatile player that John Lynch likes a lot in Jimmie Ward, and if the team felt like bringing in someone who can do a lot of the same things Mathieu does, and at a high level, they could consider bringing back Eric Reid, who has had a very quiet free agency period thus far.
Mathieu would be a bit of a “luxury” signing at this stage of the proceedings, at least that’s how I see it. He’d be a good addition to the team, but there are other areas of concern at the moment, and some of that spendin’ money everyone keeps talking about should probably go to Joe Staley and Jaquiski Tartt, among others.