PALM BEACH — The strangest move the 49ers made this offseason was cutting Kyle Juszczyk and then re-signing him four days later to essentially the same contract they had just terminated. And they took on a dead cap penalty to do this.
On Monday, general manager John Lynch was asked about this highly strange move.
Q: Can you explain the financials with Kyle Juszczyk? Letting him go, taking a dead cap hit and then bringing him back — was it a win? Is it kind of a push?
LYNCH: “I think it’s a win because we have a really good football player who’s at the core of our leadership in on our team, was a captain last year and has a chance to make that 10-year wall. That would be really really cool. We tried to show him the respect that he deserved to go see what his market was. And that at the end, we found a way to make it work.
“When I come around these things and I’m around a smart football team, I don’t think it’s any secret that people have a high respect and regard for Kyle Shanahan’s offensive acumen and scheme, and at the forefront of that is always the way we use Juzczyk and our fullback. It presents issues and challenges to our opponents. He takes such great care of himself that although he’s older, not much has changed with him.
“For him to be able to see what was out there and us to be able to find ultimately a contract situation that worked out for him and us, that’s pretty cool. We’re happy to have him back. We got him back and we’ve done away with having to deal with this next year. I think Kyle will have two good years with us and we’ll see where that goes from there. We’re fired up to have the Juszczyk — not just Kyle, but Kristen, back with the Niners.”
MY TAKE: With all due respect to Lynch, I simply don’t buy his answer. If re-signing Juszczyk was such a win, the 49ers never would have released him in the first place. Juszczyk is pure window dressing at this point in his career. He does not move the needle, as opposed Dre Greenlaw, who is a bonafide needle-mover.
Finally, saying he’s fired up to have Juszczyk’s wife back is just weird. It’s almost like the Juszczyks are family friends of the 49ers and the Greenlaws weren’t.
