With several key defense foundations set to hit the free agency, is it time to panic? The 49ers could look at a completely renovated secondary this coming season.

Of all the key positions on the 49ers list, secondary remains the biggest concern. In essence, the entire depth chart is in the air, Richard Sherman, Jason Verrett, K’Waun Williams, Ahkello Witherspoon and Jaquiski Tartt are to become free agents. 49ers defender Emmanuel Moseley was a restricted free agent, but just signed one business for two years for $ 10 million, while the strong security was Marcell Harris resigned for a year. The only holder left under the contract is 49ers Jimmie Ward, free safety.

49ers’ Secondary 2021 Free agents

  • Richard Sherman – UFA
  • Jaquiski Tartt – UFA
  • K’Waun Williams – UFA
  • Jason Verrett – UFA
  • Ahkello Witherspoon – UFA
  • Dontae Johnson – UFA
  • Jamar Taylor – UFA
  • Emmanuel Moseley – FRG
  • Marcell Harris – FRG

Initial Outlook

As they are today, the 49-year-olds have Moseley and Ward at the head of the group, with questions behind them.

Moseley is a versatile defender enough to be able to play outdoors or indoors, giving the 49ers a few options on how they want to approach the off-season. In addition to Moseley, there are four unproven defenders on the roster: Tim Harris, Mark Fields, Adonis Alexander and Ken Webster.

Ward was the 49ers starter of free safety last year, but is able to play any of the safety seats. Would it make any sense to promote Tarvarius Moore to release security and drive Ward to strong security?

The reason I suggest these possible changes is for the simple fact that it will be difficult to reorganize the secondary in an off-season. The 49ers have the high task of adding players with initial experience and / or youth up to develop this coming season. Their free agency choices could be limited if the 49ers re-sign Trent Williams in a potentially massive extension. The 49ers have a lot of venture capital this year, but it’s usually a steep learning curve to develop defensive backs. Ideally, 49ers would like to keep their own agents free, but this seems unlikely – unless a difficult market allows 49ers to re-sign them for reasonable transactions.

Free agency

As mentioned earlier, the 49ers ‘approach to adding tracks in high school depends largely on whether they keep their biggest free agent waiting in Trent Williams’ approach. From the current group of 49ers free agents, it would be stellar if they were able to keep K’Waun Williams to continue his role behind. Williams is one of the most underrated players in the league to occupy a premium position. Based on it previous comments, Richard Sherman is unlikely to return in uniform for 49 years. A combination of injuries and inconsistencies probably followed the course for Tartt and Witherspoon.

Jason Verrett’s retention on a two-year, reasonably priced contract could be a win-win for both parties; I’m not sure other teams are willing to continue bidding for his services, given his worries about the accident.

The 49ers usually don’t spend much behind the defensive, with a greater emphasis on the defensive line to set the tone for the secondary. I would expect the 49ers to go bargain hunting in the second wave of free agency, after big names of free agents, such as Shaquill Griffin from Seahawks and William Jackson from Bengal, will leave the council.

Maybe the 49ers target veteran free agents in one-year deals, while supplementing the secondary with forward-looking projects to contribute to the end of the year. I remember outside defenders like Xavier Rhodes of Colts, Kevin King of the Packers and Troy Hill of Rams. There also seems to be a good surplus of slot corners, such as Nickell Robey-Coleman of the Eagles, Justin Coleman of the Lions and Desmond King of the Titans. It may be optimistic thinking, but Lamarcus Joyner of the Raiders, Bradley McDougald of the Jets and Malik Hooker of the Colts are all fit for safety.

Project

The 49ers enter the NFL draft with 10 draft picks, especially with seven of them slotted on Day 3 – including three fifth-round picks. As I mentioned earlier, 49ers don’t spend a lot on high through the free agency, so I would expect the 49ers office to be proactive in this project. Maybe they are trading to get their boys, but given the strong need of the 49-year-olds to reorganize their depth, I wouldn’t be surprised if they projects 3-4 defensive backs to round the group.

General perspective

The 49ers ’defensive philosophy has always given priority to the front seven over the secondary, but that doesn’t mean the team can only handle inferior talent – see last season against the Miami Dolphins with Brian Allen. They will need to find a good mix of skilled veterans and project their prospects to reach their secondary level at a respectable level; the detention of two free agents could help the efforts with stability in the system. Depending on how the 49ers play their cards this season, the secondary could be Achilles’ heel in their defense.

  • Justin Wong

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    Justin Wong has been writing for 49z Webzone since 2017, while running an NFC West blog and podcast called Just The West. Feel free to follow him or ask any questions to @JustTheWest on Twitter.