There are a handful of tough calls for the San Francisco 49ers to make in the wake of a disastrous 2024 season.
This year was one that may push the 49ers to make wholesale changes to their roster in hopes of re-opening a new Super Bowl window after the window with this year’s group appeared to close in a blaze of injuries, special teams woes and red-zone issues.
One of the biggest changes they can make is along the defensive line where parting with defensive tackle Javon Hargrave may become a necessary move for salary cap purposes.
Hargrave signed a four-year, $84 million deal in the 2023 offseason and never quite hit the level of game-wrecker the 49ers hoped he would be. He did have a terrific Week 3 game vs. the Los Angeles Rams this season, but he also suffered a triceps tear in that contest that ended cut his season short.
The 49ers need an overhaul on the defensive line and letting the 31-year-old walk ahead of his Age 32 season is a step the team can take in revamping a defensive position group that, bluntly, hasn’t been good enough the last two years.
Signing Hargrave was supposed to help the 49ers replicate some of the success they had along the defensive front in the 2019 season. While the veteran defensive tackle was productive as a pass rusher with 72 pressures and nine sacks in 22 games (including the postseason) per Pro Football Focus, he wasn’t a particularly effective run defender and he didn’t make life much easier on the rest of the defensive line.
Hargrave’s release would cost the 49ers $24.86 million in dead cap next year, while saving them $3.245 million and opening a spot on the defensive line for a younger player to get snaps. Not to mention the additional $3 million in cap savings will be significant for a team that will have to carefully manage the cap with a sizable contract likely due soon for quarterback Brock Purdy.
They could also designate him as a post-June 1 cut where his dead cap number would fall to $7.375 million and the savings would leap to $20.73 million.
There’s still something in the tank for Hargrave who can still be productive on a good defensive line. The 49ers are just in a place now where the cap savings of cutting him may outweigh the reward of keeping him in red and gold for another season.