Competition helps commerce, I suppose.
There’s one thing apparent in this year’s NFL free agency: there’s a lot of competition for selecting your next safety. The Los Angeles Chargers released safety Jahleel Addae on Saturday. The release is being reported as a cap casualty.
But don’t get this twisted. Addae isn’t elite talent. He’s not an awful solution to the position, but he did struggle often in that Chargers defense. At the very least, he’s not on the Craig Dahl levels where he’d only fill in for special teams purposes and provide held breath when hitting the field. The one thing Addae has is durability and a team could do much worse than picking him up, especially at a cheaper price.
This helps the San Francisco 49ers quite a bit. While many are hoping they invest in Earl Thomas, the safety pool has deepened this last week with declined options, franchise tags, etc. This will provide a competitive market for teams and perhaps safeties won’t be near as expensive due to the sheer number of them.
Addae might not be on the level of Thomas or Tyrann Mathieu, but some team could bring him in for a workout and decide to plug him in for his cheaper cost and give it a shot.
Don’t misunderstand, Thomas is going to break the bank for his final contract, that much is a safe prediction, but when the playing field is full of other options that don’t have a severe drop in production, it may take his price down a bit. The safeties below him can only get cheaper from there. This in turn may help the 49ers salary cap numbers as they try to figure out who to bring in.
Back to Addae for a moment: despite some hesitancy, should the 49ers get a look?
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