49ers GM John Lynch Talks Approach Ahead of NFL FA: 'Want to Go After It Every Year'

After another devastating loss at the end of an otherwise terrific season, the San Francisco 49ers are once again trying to find ways to add more pieces that can get them over the hump in the playoffs.

Despite some talk that the reigning NFC champs might look to subtract from their roster after spending big money in free agency over the past two years, general manager John Lynch doesn't sound like he's going to make that type of move.

"I want to go after it every year," Lynch told reporters about the team's offseason approach. "I know that's the way we roll; that's the way we think. At some point you've got to have some years you take off and you kind of sit on your hands and still be creative as to how you improve your team. But we're always about improving our team. I think we have an opportunity to do that."

Few teams have been as aggressive with their spending in recent years as the 49ers. Since the end of the 2020 season, they have signed Trent Williams, Deebo Samuel, Nick Bosa, George Kittle, Fred Warner and Javon Hargrave to deals worth at least $15 million annually.

The deals for Williams, Bosa, Kittle and Warner made them the highest-paid player at their position when they were signed. They also acquired Christian McCaffrey, who has an average salary of $16 million, from the Carolina Panthers in October 2022.

That doesn't even include Charvarius Ward's free-agent contract after the 2021 season that pays him $13.5 million per season.

While it's nice for the 49ers to spend money to keep the nucleus of a roster that has been to two Super Bowls and four NFC Championship Games in the past five seasons, the realities of a salary-cap league are catching up to them.

San Francisco is currently $285,281 over the cap with free agency set to begin on Wednesday. The cap situation and all of those big contracts are why Brandon Aiyuk, who is entering the final season of his rookie deal, has been talked about as a potential trade candidate.

Per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, the 49ers are expected to work on an extension for Aiyuk after free agency.

The Niners can restructure some of those big-money contracts to create cap space if there is a big move they want to make, either in free agency or via trade. This would seem to be an offseason when they don't try to take a big swing, or else run the risk of all that money they are pushing into the future hurting them when their star players exit their prime years.

Of course, there weren't a lot of expectations the 49ers would do anything big last offseason before they gave Hargrave a four-year, $84 million deal.