A one-year deal.
Former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Eli Harold has another new team. The former 49ers linebacker signed with the Buffalo Bills on a one-year deal.
I bring up the Harold signing because there were some questions on why the 49ers would have traded him to the Detroit Lions in the first place. Eli Harold was a bit disappointing given how he was considered as steal when drafted in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft, but he had a decent second season. He just couldn’t get consistency after that 2016 season and the 49ers shipped him off to Lions for a 2020 seventh-round draft pick to start 2018.
Of course, when arriving in Detroit, Harold had a great start and was going to make the 49ers maybe regret doing such a deal. He notched three sacks in his first three weeks, but he’d only get one more sack the entire season to finish with four.
And so another 49ers player is struggling for a team. Some were thinking the 49ers wouldn’t be able to hold onto him, but a one-year deal, one with a team he didn’t finish the season out with isn’t the most desirable of outcomes. This was yet another highly touted prospect that just could not work out for whatever the reason.
We’ve talked about Harold leaving in our departures series and it appeared that he did quite well for himself given that he was traded near to the start of the regular season starting. I always felt as a SAM linebacker, not talking about Harold meant Harold was doing his job. Maybe SAM’s are a dime a dozen, maybe he wanted out of Detroit.
It’s just another Trent Baalke pick that’s not only not on the 49ers, if this contract says anything (not to mention the timing of it) his time in the NFL might be on a year-to-year basis now.
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