The 49ers theoretically have a chance to correct one of their mistakes from the 2017 NFL draft. Jets safety Jamal Adams, who went three picks after the 49ers selected Solomon Thomas No. 3 overall, on Thursday officially requested a trade. The 49ers are one of his seven desired destinations according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, but it’s hard to see how they pull the trigger on that trade.
Adding the All-Pro and two-time Pro Bowler makes sense for the 49ers on paper. He’s arguably the best safety in the league and was the fourth-highest graded safety by Pro Football Focus last season. He’s excellent in coverage anywhere on the field, and a superb tackler when he comes down and plays in the box. There’s not a lot Adams can’t do on the football field, and any defense would get better by adding him.
It’s not that simple for the 49ers though, who would undoubtedly improve with Adams in their secondary. San Francisco faces a rash of complications that will likely keep them from ever being in serious consideration for the 24-year-old.
The first issue is the salary cap. COVID-19 and the ripple effects from the pandemic could touch the NFL’s salary cap for multiple seasons. The typically reliable increase isn’t as reliable as its been in the past, and a lack of fans in attendance for games in 2020 could wind up either stagnating the cap or pushing it down.
San Francisco is likely factoring that into their plans with a George Kittle extension, and adding another extension-eligible star who’s going to break the bank probably isn’t prudent when the salary cap situation is so volatile.
Then there’s the matter of all the moves the 49ers already have to navigate this offseason. Among the players not under contract beyond the 2020 campaign are Kittle, Richard Sherman, K’Waun Williams, Trent Williams, Ahkello Witherspoon, Emmanuel Moseley and Kyle Juszczyk. There are a slew of others as well. The finances are already going to be tricky with Kittle at the top of his market and a host of good players hitting free agency. Adding another top-of-market player in Adams makes a mass exodus even more likely for San Francisco.
That leads to another problem: trade compensation. Adams will garner a ton of attention in the trade market, and more than one team will likely be willing to part with a first-round pick to get him. If San Francisco offers a 2021 first, a later pick and maybe a player, which could be the going rate for Adams, they’d be left relatively thin on picks since they already moved their 2021 third-round selection in the trade to acquire Trent Williams.
So those last two things combined mean a mass exodus of players and a limited number of draft picks to help replace those that left. San Francisco got away with only using five picks in the 2020 draft. It’s nearly impossible to see how they navigate a second consecutive draft like that.
If the 49ers believed their window was closing, perhaps they push all their chips in for Adams and figure out the rest later. Everything the team has done since 2017 runs counter to that though, including the DeForest Buckner trade in March. General manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan are aiming to build a roster with a sustainable championship window. There are key cogs in place, and complete rebuilds like the one the team underwent between 2014 and 2019 are replaced with minor tweaks and retooling. Part of that model includes not getting backed into a corner by the salary cap and making prudent selections in the draft to restock the cupboard. Trading for Adams and inking him to a massive extension flies in the face of almost all of that.
Adams would make the 49ers better right away, but adding him would make it much more difficult for San Francisco to continue building Super Bowl contenders in 2021 and beyond.
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