It was a little bit of a surprise to see the San Francisco 49ers place second-round tenders on two of their restricted free agents — Matt Breida and Kendrick Bourne. It meant more money for each player heading into 2020, and if another team remains interested, it would need to surrender a second-round draft pick to acquire either.
Matt Barrows of The Athletic joined KNBR on Monday and explained why whispers from around the league might have forced the 49ers to use a higher-than-expected tender on Breida, and potentially the reason for Bourne, too.
Of course, the other option would have been to use an original-round tender. Both were initially signed as undrafted free agents.
The topic of discussion surrounded San Francisco's current tradable equity. The 49ers own two first-round draft picks but lack another selection before the fifth round. They would obviously like that to change.
"That was a bit of a surprise," Barrows said of Breida's second-round tender. "I thought it would be the original-round tender, just given their depth at running back. But the second-round tender was sort of a signal that they knew that there were other teams that would be sniffing around Breida. Ostensibly, they know the teams that are interested in him."
Barrows goes on to point out that the Philadelphia Eagles were rumored to be interested in Breida last year. The reporter for The Athletic wonders if there might have been similar interest this year.
"I don't know what they would get for him," Barrows continued. "It might not be a second-rounder, and you can assume it wouldn't be because that team would just sign him away and then give the 49ers a second-rounder, if that were the case. But I think the 49ers would take less than that for him — a third- or fourth-rounder, perhaps."
Barrows fully expects the 49ers to at least partially fill the void between rounds one and five. Whether that will be by trading away Breida remains to be seen.
Many felt Breida would likely be back with the team when the second-round tender was placed on him. The running back didn't want to assume anything, repeating the words of his teammate, Bourne, after both were tendered, and saying on Twitter, "Let's see what happens."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Barrows below.