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49ers Release Arik Armstead

Trey Daubert / NFL / March 11, 2024

49ers Release Arik Armstead

The only reason the 49ers got to the Super Bowl is because of their incredible roster. Today, they’re tearing an important piece off for cap reasons. San Francisco on the eve on free agency has decided to release Arik Armstead.

Jordan Schultz of Bleacher Report was the first to report the news:

Sources to @BleacherReport: #49ers star DL Arik Armstead has decided to become a free agent and will be released.

Armstead comes off a 6 tackle, 1-sack performance in the Super Bowl, and ranks 4th in playoff sacks among all active players.

His 8 playoff sacks rank second… pic.twitter.com/og5m3RsU3s
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) March 11, 2024

NBC Sports’ Matt Maiocco also reported that Armstead declined to take a pay cut which prompted his release.

This is an absolutely brutal loss. Amstead, 30, is the longest-tenured player on the team… or was I should say. He’s also a Sacramento native and is from that area. He’s been with the team since being selected in the first round of the 2015 NFL Draft.

Last season, Armstead had 27 tackles and five sacks during an injury-plagued campaign. Over nine seasons and 116 regular-season games, Armstead has 33.5 career sacks. That doesn’t sound like a high number but he causes a lot of havoc as a defensive tackle. There is a reason why the 49ers paid him an $85 million extension in 2019.

Fred Warner Receives Massive Contract Extension

Personally, I don’t really get this. The things the 49ers do from a personnel standpoint will never make sense to me. Check this out here. San Francisco will take on a $25.86 million cap hit of dead money by releasing Armstread. Yes, they will save $18 million in cap space if they designate him as a June 1st mark but all that really does is spread out the dead cap. Is releasing Armstread really worth eating that much dead money? To lose your best interior defensive tackle at age 30? Stupid…

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