The San Francisco 49ers had a ton of starters hit the open market in free agency last offseason and found lucrative deals elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Aaron Banks got a four-year, $77 million deal with the Green Bay Packers. Charvarius Ward got three years and $54 million with the Indianapolis Colts. Javon Hargrave became a crucial piece for the Minnesota Vikings up front with a two-year, $30 million deal. Talanoa Hufanga became a starter for the Super Bowl-participating Denver Broncos on a three-year, $39 million deal. So did Dre Greenlaw, who signed a three-year, $31.5 million deal there.<\/p>\n
Then there was Leonard Floyd, who went to the Atlanta Falcons on a one-year, $10 million deal. And Maliek Collins was one of the biggest steals of the offseason for the Cleveland Browns at two years and $20 million. Even backup swing tackle Jaylon Moore got two years and $30 million with the Kansas City Chiefs.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s quite the load of contributors heading elsewhere, while San Francisco\u2019s top free agent addition was tight end Luke Farrell, who signed a three-year, $15.75 million deal.<\/p>\n
Now, looking ahead to this offseason, the free agent departure pool doesn\u2019t look nearly as bad as last offseason, although releases could add to that last. Who are the team\u2019s top free agents?<\/p>\n
Jennings signed a two-year, $11.9 million deal in 2024 that could be worth up to $15.4 million and produced the best two years of his career. After catching 78 passes for 963 yards and seven touchdowns over the first three years of his career, Jennings broke out in 2024 with 77 catches for 975 yards and six touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Then, in 2025, he followed that with 55 catches for 643 yards and nine touchdowns while also dealing with a few injuries earlier in the year.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s set for a big payday on the open market, which is well-deserved after earning $23.75 million through the first six years of his career.<\/p>\n
Burford has been a polarizing player for the 49ers. He started his career at right guard, making 29 starts in 30 career games there over his first two seasons. Then he was a backup for the entirety of 2024 before seeing starts at left guard this year due to injury.<\/p>\n
He could get some money on the open market (offensive line is always a premium), and the 49ers could also be looking for a replacement.<\/p>\n
Gross-Matos signed a two-year, $18 million deal with the 49ers in free agency, which ended up being a very disappointing addition. He struggled to be healthy, playing in 19 games over two years, and didn\u2019t have much of an impact this year when the team needed him.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s still only going into his age-28 season, so he\u2019ll probably get interest on a short-term deal on the open market, but he wasn\u2019t a major impact player for the 49ers this year.<\/p>\n
Outside of Jennings, Piniero\u2019s probably the most important player to retain for the 49ers after the year he had. He had a phenomenal year, hitting 28 of his 29 field goals (96.3 percent). He\u2019s now a career 89.7 percent field goal kicker and Kyle Shanahan publicly said the team wants him back.<\/p>\n
The cost will be interesting, though, given what should be high interest on the open market.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a restricted free agent, so the 49ers shouldn\u2019t have a problem bringing him back, but perhaps they should look for a multi-year extension here.<\/p>\n
Tonges wasn\u2019t a good run-blocker, but he provided some ability in the pass game and will only be 27 in 2026. At the worst, he\u2019s depth in the tight end room, which probably needs an upgrade over Luke Farrell at the TE2 spot next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers had a ton of starters hit the open market in free agency last offseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6,1161,252,52067,1137,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-707493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-roster","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115963964113912760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}