![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/kyle-shanahan-san-francisco-49ers.jpg\")
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(Photo by Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The San Francisco 49ers<\/a> added veteran players this offseason as the team is looking to win now. Mike Evans, Christian Kirk, and the return of Dre Greenlaw are among the players the Niners hope will help them win this upcoming 2026 NFL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, one concern about the 49ers<\/a>\u2018 defense is at safety. With the NFL Draft coming at the end of April, there\u2019s a chance for San Francisco to fill that need. However, former Niners star Donte Whitner believes the front office should go with a veteran rather than rely on a rookie. <\/p>\n Moreover, Whitner states that former Denver Broncos<\/a> and Atlanta Falcons<\/a> safety Justin Simmons, who is currently a free agent, makes sense for the Niners. <\/p>\n \u201cYou have to really be an anomaly to be a rookie safety that can come in and handle the communication capabilities that it\u2019s going to take to play a championship defense,\u201d Whitner said about signing Simmons in a April 2 video from the \u201cGrit Code Podcast.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI do think a young safety can come in, be physical, play some man, but I don\u2019t think he can be the quarterback of the defense\u2026 You gotta win now. We don\u2019t need no rookie safety.\u201d<\/p>\n Simmons drew interest from several teams last summer, but the two-time Pro Bowler ended up sitting out the whole season. Nonetheless, the 32-year-old hasn\u2019t ruled out continuing his career.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m still a free agent, looking to play for a contender, and we\u2019ll see where that ends up,\u201d\u00a0Simmons said on his podcast,\u00a0The Weekly Cut<\/a>.<\/p>\n 49ers Insider Also Floats Justin Simmons as Potential Fit for Niners<\/p>\n Whitner isn\u2019t the only one floating Simmons\u2019 name to the 49ers as David Lombardi, who covers the 49ers for the SF Standard, shared his thoughts on the Niners possibly pursuing Simmons.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 49ers need to add a safety, and Justin Simmons, the former All\u2011Pro, still wants to play,\u201d\u00a0Lombardi said on March 28 on his YouTube channel<\/a>. \u201c\u2026 The safety free\u2011agent market is rough, and I agree with Richard Sherman. I do think that the 49ers still need to bolster that position\u2026\u00a0Somebody like Justin Simmons is out there, but Simmons has not played in over a year.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2024, he was playing under Raheem Morris, who\u2019s now the 49ers defensive coordinator. He played for $7.5\u202fmillion guaranteed for the Atlanta Falcons, but his missed\u2011tackle rate was 19.8\u202fpercent. He missed a career\u2011high 16 tackles. It was not a good year for Justin Simmons, whose best career year was way back in 2019 for Denver. And a lot of these veteran safeties are still out there.\u201d<\/p>\n John Lynch Talks Joey Bosa Amid Speculation<\/p>\n Moreover, another veteran who has been in the speculation mill is pass rusher Joey Bosa, who spent last season with the Buffalo Bills<\/a>. While seeing the older Bosa play with his younger brother,\u00a0Nick Bosa<\/a>, would be interesting, 49ers general manager John Lynch put cold water on that speculation.<\/p>\n \u201cI know that would make Mama Bosa happy, but I don\u2019t know if we can afford him,\u201d Lynch said (h\/t\u00a0David Lombardi of the SF Standard<\/a>).<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tEduardo Razo<\/a> Eduardo Razo is a sports writer for Heavy.com, covering the NFL, MLB, and college football. He has previously covered the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has freelanced for PSG Talk, covering Paris Saint-Germain. He also worked as an editor at Athlon Sports, focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on 49ers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty (Photo by Ezra Shaw\/Getty Images) The San Francisco 49ers added veteran players this offseason as the team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,231,258,2426,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-849946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-broncos","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-denverbroncos","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116336985867001679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849946","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=849946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}