The 49ers won’t be the club to emerge with wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. who was placed on waivers Monday by the Cleveland Browns. It was always a long shot, but head coach Kyle Shanahan on Monday told reporters San Francisco wouldn’t put in a claim because of fiscal constraints.
“Yeah, for that reason, we won’t be able to put a claim on him,” Shanahan said in a conference call. “Just for the financial reasons.”
Beckham comes with a cap hit just over $7 million. San Francisco has less than $4 million in cap space. There would be a number of financial hoops to jump through to clear more than $3 million in space to add the veteran receiver.
If wide receiver was the 49ers’ only problem they might be more willing to work something out. Not to mention they could wait to see if he clears waivers and then try to figure out a contract that fits him in under the cap this season.
The chances Beckham clears waivers aren’t necessarily high though. Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll intimated Seattle could be one of the teams putting a claim in. Going from potentially having Beckham to facing him would be another tough break for the 49ers in a year full of them.
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