Although the 49ers have several key players, including safety Eric Reid and running back Carlos Hyde, entering their respective contract seasons, it doesn’t as though San Francisco has extension offers lined up for free agents-to-be, according to Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com.
“I would say that we’re always having internal discussions, Kyle (Shanahan) and myself and our staffs,” general manager John Lynch said. “And, we really try to be forward thinking looking out, not just this year but three to five years and saying, ‘OK, let’s look at the construct of our roster.’ But, our priority was let’s provide competition at each and every position. And so, that’s why we were so active this year to go out and to be able to really judge this and judge those guys in particular. There’s going to be a little more urgency with some of them, but we’re going to let this play out a little bit and see how they fit with what we want to do.”
Here’s more from the NFC West:
- The Seahawks gave former Philadelphia first rounder Marcus Smith a one-year, $690K deal with zero guarantees, Field Yates of ESPN.com tweets. The deal carries a maximum value of $1.44MM. Smith hasn’t done much in his three NFL seasons so far, but the Seahawks are hoping to get something out of him as a reserve.
- Lance Dunbar was signed to serve as the backup to running back Todd Gurley, but given that the former Cowboy is on active/PUP and has no timetable to return from injury, Malcolm Brown is taking the lion’s share of work as the Rams‘ No. 2, as Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.com writes. Brown, a 2015 undrafted free agent out of Texas, has managed only 22 carries in two pro seasons, but new Los Angeles head coach Sean McVay has been “pleasantly surprised” by Brown’s training camp work, per Gonzalez. The Rams could still look at external options — they’ve talked with free agent Rashad Jennings — but for now, Brown is on track to take over the backup role.
Dallas Robinson contributed to this post.