Fooch’s update No. 2: Trotter tweeted that the 49ers told him it was only a one-year offer.
Fooch’s update: Matt Barrows a different piece of information. This arrived after Trotter reported the multi-year deal.
Per a league source, the #49ers also offered Eric Reid a one-year deal this week. (As they did in the offseason). Can only assume that Reid found Carolina's offer better because he could start there whereas he'd be behind Tartt in SF once Tartt gets healthy.
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) September 27, 2018
The Carolina Panthers signed Eric Reid on Thursday, bringing in the safety on a one-year deal. He will slot in as Carolina’s starting strong safety following the decision to move Da’Norris Searcy to the injured reserve list.
It turns out, they might not have been the only team interested in signing Reid. NFL Media reporter Jim Trotter tweeted that the 49ers made a run at Reid this week, with hopes of signing him to a multi-year deal.
Another team that made a sincere run at Eric Reid this week was the #49ers, who had interest in signing him to a multi-year deal.
— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) September 27, 2018
This is intriguing, to say the least. Matt Maiocco is reporting that the 49ers told Eric Reid early on that Adrian Colbert and Jaquiski Tartt were their safeties for 2018 and it have to be a one-year deal at backup money if anything was done. This squares with what Kyle Shanahan said back in August when asked about the team reportedly wanting him back on a one-year minimum deal.
“Yeah, I think I said what I said then and I’ll say it forever. If any really good player wants to come in here on a minimum deal and have a good player to be a backup, that’d be unbelievable. I don’t think that’s what Eric wants. I told you the reason we decided to go that direction is because we made a tough decision, but we had to do it. We went with [S Jaquiski] Tartt. We thought that was the right way to go. You can’t give a lot of money to backups, and that’s what he would be if he came here. But, I like Eric. Eric is a good player, he’s a good person. That’d be great if we could add him to that role. I don’t think he would be that interested in it.”
Reid’s decision to take a one-year deal over a potential multi-year deal could fall under betting on himself to land a bigger deal next year. And give how multi-year deals actually work in the NFL, he might have decided that a 49ers deal (if offered) would lock him in without an opportunity to earn what he believes to be his true worth.
What’s most interesting for 49ers fans is what this means of the safety position. Were the 49ers looking for someone to fill in while Jaquiski Tartt and/or Adrian Colbert are hurt, and then go back to the bench? Or is there something else in mind with that kind of potential offer?