During free agency, 49ers fans are used to underwhelming signings and have come to expect them even. This year, while other teams were wheeling and dealing for big name free agents, the 49ers were busy making some trades. The first one was a sixth-round pick for Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback, Blaine Gabbert.
The second trade was a conditional seventh-round pick in 2015 for offensive lineman Jonathan Martin from the Miami Dolphins. If Martin is on the opening day roster this season the 49ers will give up that draft pick. Both of these trades raise questions when you first look at them but both are extremely low risk for the 49ers.
The trade for Gabbert is an interesting one. Most people around the league have already labeled Gabbert as a huge bust. So why would the 49ers go out and make a trade for him? Well, because head coach Jim Harbaugh is what you would call a quarterback whisperer.
When he took over the 49ers three seasons ago everyone had already left Alex Smith for dead. People in San Francisco were more than ready to move on from that era and never look back. But Harbaugh got something out of Smith that no one had seen since Smith’s days at Utah. Harbaugh got to the NFC Conference Championship game with Smith as his starting quarterback.
Then the 49ers drafted a quarterback out of Nevada in the second-round who most people didn’t even know how to pronounce his last name in Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick sat behind Alex Smith for a season and a half and when he got his chance he took the 49ers to the Super Bowl. The following season as a starter he got them to within one play of another Super Bowl.
So why can’t Harbaugh fix Gabbert to be a more than capable back-up? For a sixth-round pick, I’d say Gabbert is more talented than what you would find at that stage of the draft. And with Gabbert you know what you’re getting, you’ve seen his games against NFL talent. An interesting note about this trade is they were able to get Gabbert for the same cost they got Anquan Boldin for last offseason. I doubt he’ll have anywhere close to the same impact as Boldin did in his first year with the team, but it’s an interesting note nonetheless.
The trade for Jonathan Martin wasn’t as surprising as the Gabbert trade was because there had been mentions of Martin ending up in San Francisco before. Early in the season, Martin had serious issues with his teammates in Miami involving bullying that forced him to take a leave of absence from the team.
After everything that happened, it was obvious his future was not with the Dolphins. With everything that happened, everyone knew the best place for him was a team that had really strong leadership (especially within the offensive line) and a really strong organization from the head coach and up.
The 49ers of course meet that criterion. What made it even more of a perfect fit was that Martin played for Harbaugh in college at Stanford University. When asked about Martin during the season, Harbaugh had nothing but great things to say about him and said he had the utmost respect for Martin. So naturally, the trade ended up getting done. For all parties involved, it’s a great fit.
The 49ers have a very good offensive line but they lack depth once you get past Daniel Kilgore. Their backup tackle is Alex Boone, who is their starting right guard. Not to mention, there’s a good chance Mike Iupati isn’t with the team after this season because of all the contracts coming up for other core players and he might be the odd man out. Martin could work to learn that position this season and fill the void if Iupati leaves. Not to mention the 49ers love to run a lot of six linemen sets. Having that sixth lineman be a starting caliber lineman is quite advantageous.
And the fit for Martin is also perfect. He gets an extremely strong and tight knit locker room and an organization that’s a class act from the top down. He also gets a top notch offensive line that will embrace him and help him grow as a player. For what the 49ers got him for, there was really no reason not to pull the trigger.
The 49ers don’t make a lot of flashy signings during free agency, but they sure do seem to like making bargain trades. They don’t have many roster spots to be had and they realize they need depth. Instead of taking a long shot that late in the draft, they went with two guys who they’ve seen already play in the NFL and know exactly what they’re getting.
If one or both players end up not working out, it barely cost them a thing and they can easily move on with pretty much no harm done. Some people have criticized these moves, but when you really look into it, they’re moves that are extremely low risk and could prove to be extremely beneficial to the team.