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The Athletic’s Matt Barrows had an informative article where he interviewed Adam Peters on Tuesday. Peters gave Barrows the rundown on how the upcoming visits work and looked back at the 49ers pre-draft visits with Fred Warner and Mike McGlinchey.
Adam Peters on how the 49ers will navigate such a strange, but critical, draft
Fred Warner’s a great example. We got him in on a 30 visit and he blew us away with his presence, his football knowledge, his personality — everything we saw. We thought he was going to be a team captain right then. Whereas Mike, like you said, his combine interview was excellent. But then we didn’t come near him again. Because I don’t think we wanted anybody to know that we wanted him. So we didn’t bring him in on a 30 visit. But because of all the great information that we’d gotten from our scouts going into Notre Dame, he was as clean as could be in terms of the person, the worker, the intelligence and all that.
Bourne, Jacksonville’s Keelan Cole and Cleveland’s Rashard Higgins are four-year NFL veterans of comparable age and production who should warrant similar contracts as unrestricted free agents.
It is doubtful the 49ers would be willing to pay any receiver on the open market what they are willing to pay to bring back Bourne.
With what figures to be another deep class of wideouts in the draft, the 49ers are likely to devote a draft pick to bolster the position. The 49ers are scheduled to have a compensatory pick at the end of Round 3, as well as one fourth-round selection and three more picks in the fifth round.
Cheap Free Agents the 49ers Should Target, Part 10 — Running Backs
If the 49ers are strictly in search of veteran depth, Chris Thompson, Alfred Morris and Devonta Freeman would be training camp bodies that could sneak onto the roster.
Thompson played his rookie season (2013) under Shanahan and current San Francisco running backs coach Robert Turner Jr. The third-down back also played three seasons under Sean McVay. He would likely cost less than his 2020 $1.4 million salary.
An interesting low-cost option is Ameer Abdullah ($1.05 million in 2020). The 2015 second-round pick by Detroit did not live up to his draft pedigree, but he’s since carved out a role as Minnesota’s kick returner that occasionally draws carries.
Abdullah would slide behind Hasty, and improve the 49ers’ lackluster kick-return unit with his 26.4-yard career return average.
Predicting landing spots for SF 49ers top 5 free agents in 2021
No. 3: Fullback Kyle Juszczyk
A number of teams could call on Juszczyk this offseason. But there’s a real sense he could perform a similar duty with the Jets, who also hired San Francisco’s former pass-game coordinator, Mike LaFleur, to be their offensive coordinator.
LaFleur’s offense will probably be just as complex as Shanahan’s, and the need of an experienced fullback to do essentially everything makes a lot of sense.
And Gang Green has plenty of resources to overspend on a would-be free-agent deal.
Prediction: NY Jets
It looks like Jimmy Garoppolo is on track to return as the 49ers’ starting quarterback next season, which means San Francisco needs to solidify the rest of their depth chart given Garoppolo’s injury history the last three years. Brissett offers a good second option with starting experience who has the skill set to operate in Kyle Shanahan’s offense. It may run a little extra to bring him in, but the added investment would be worth having some better insurance behind Garoppolo.