The 49ers on Monday showed what their top priority was in free agency when they quickly scooped up two affordable defensive ends in the first day of the NFL’s legal negotiating window. Deals agreed upon during that window won’t become official until the league year begins Wednesday at 1:00pm Pacific Time.
San Francisco added veteran DEs Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos on relatively affordable two-year deals. While the big-time splash along the defensive line isn’t likely coming, they can’t be done adding depth on the edges.
Adding defensive end help was maybe the second-biggest offseason need for the 49ers. Having a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate at one end is nice, but San Francisco has placed a major emphasis on its defensive front. They needed additional help for Bosa with Drake Jackson and Robert Beal Jr. as the only other DEs slated to potentially play major roles in 2024.
Floyd and Gross-Matos will help in that realm. The former was a full-time starter for the Bills last season, but he played just 54 percent of Buffalo’s defensive snaps. Meanwhile, Gross-Matos missed five games and started only half of the 12 games he played. That’s not to say he can’t develop into a full-time starter, which he was for the Panthers in 2022, but his production as a pass rusher has always left something to be desired if he’s going to be on the field for a majority of the team’s snaps.
Ideally the 49ers would utilize Gross-Matos as a versatile pass rusher in the same vein as Charles Omenihu during his couple of seasons in San Francisco. Floyd may start, but he’s probably limited to being more of a pass-rush specialist instead of an every-down player.
Both players should be very valuable for a 49ers defensive line that struggled with consistency and overall production last year. However, given the rotational role both players figure to occupy, more depth will be a necessity for the 49ers.
Perhaps they view Jackson and Beal as those depth pieces. Jackson has flashed a handful of times in 23 games as a pro, but he’s still an unproven commodity despite his big-time upside. Beal was a rookie last season and saw action in only four games, although he did record a sack in Week 18 when he played a career-high 24 defensive snaps.
Neither player has done enough as a pro to inspire the kind of confidence the 49ers will want in their edge depth. They’ll get opportunities, but San Francisco would be wise to either find another inexpensive free agent, or use an early draft pick at DE.
Either way the 49ers have done a nice job filling out their barren DE depth chart so far. They just have to ensure they’re not satisfied just yet or else they run the risk of falling short at one of the most important positions on their roster for the second consecutive year.
