San Francisco 49ers: Should They Sign Hakeem Nicks?

According to reports by ESPN’s Josina Anderson, free-agent wide receiver Hakeem Nicks visited with the San Francisco 49ers on Monday.  Nicks spent the first five seasons of his career catching passes from Eli Manning for the New York Giants before spending last year with the Indianapolis Colts.

At first blush, Nicks makes a lot of sense for the 49ers, even after the big signing of Torrey Smith.  The 49ers are definitely short on experienced receivers. 

Smith and Anquan Boldin are the only two receivers with significant recent experience.  They’re followed by Jerome Simpson, who missed the entire 2014 season.  Behind them, there are just unproven players such as Bruce Ellington and Quinton Patton.  It would seem that there is room to add an extra veteran to the mix.

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

It wasn’t that long ago, either, that Nicks was one of the up-and-coming stars at the receiver position.  In his first four years in the league, Nicks averaged 64 receptions for 932 yards and seven touchdowns, peaking at 1,192 yards in 2011.  He seemed set to have a long, productive career as an upper-tier receiver in the league.

Since 2012, however, Nicks’ numbers have begun to fall off a cliff.  Injuries plagued Nicks in 2012 and 2013, as he fell back under the 1,000-yard mark each season.  He was actually kept out of the end zone in the entire 2013 season, despite starting 15 games for the team. 

Those facts, combined with reported fines for being consistently late and missing treatments, according to NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport, led the Giants to not re-sign him when his contract came up before last season.

After that season, Nicks was quoted by Paul Schwartz of the New York Post as saying, “I still consider myself one of the top receivers in this league, and I’m going to go out and prove it.’’  To that end, he signed a one-year, “prove it” style contract with the Indianapolis Colts.  Surely, a healthy Nicks being thrown to by one of the best young quarterbacks in the game would re-ignite Nicks’ career.

Instead, Nicks found himself a massive afterthought.  He only managed 38 receptions for 405 yards and four touchdowns last season, and all signs of the explosion he showed early in his career were gone. 

He lost snaps to rookie Donte Moncrief by the end of the season and fell to the fourth option as a receiver.  Admittedly, the Colts had a very good receiver set ahead of him in Reggie Wayne, T.Y. Hilton and Moncrief, but that’s not exactly the season Nicks was hoping for when he signed the deal.

AJ Mast/Associated Press

I don’t believe Nicks is necessarily fully washed up.  He’s only 27 years old, so there’s still hope he can turn things around.  He, at the very least, was fully healthy in 2014, which was something he couldn’t say before, having never played a full season in New York. 

There were also signs of life late in the season last year, making some highlight-reel catches in the playoffs.  This touchdown reception against Denver and this 45-yard reception against Cincinnati show that he’s not a dead roster spot or anything similar at this point in his career.

That being said, what would his role be on the 49ers?  He’s certainly not a starting receiver at this point; even if he was, the 49ers are set there in 2015 with Boldin and Smith. 

He’s not a developmental player like Patton, Ellington or a potential 2015 draft pick; he’s not going to exceed what he was able to do in New York.  In fact, if he’s on the roster, he might end up taking snaps away from those developmental players, which would be a bad thing.

The only way signing Nicks would make sense for the 49ers is if he’s competing with Jerome Simpson to be the third experienced receiver on the roster.  It would pretty much need to be an either/or situation, with the winner of that battle becoming the third or fourth receiver on the depth chart. 

Having both of them on the team would either involve paying a veteran a substantial amount of money to sit on the bench or taking practice time away from players the 49ers need to develop for 2016 and beyond.

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

Now, a Nicks versus Simpson battle for third veteran receiver is something that would be good for the team overall, but you’d have to convince Nicks that it’d be good for him.  Simpson, having missed all of 2014, sort of had to accept whatever deal was offered him.  According to Spotrac, Simpson has no guaranteed money on his contract, so the 49ers could cut him loose without any real issues.

Would Nicks accept a similar deal?  That’s honestly my biggest question about bringing him in.  Up to this point, there’s been no teams with reported interest in Nicks, meaning his market is about as cold as cold can be.  If that’s the case, then perhaps he would accept a deal where he fights for a roster spot—he has to think he can beat out a guy who wasn’t in the league last season.

However, Nicks’ last deal was a $4 million contract with half of it guaranteed, according to Spotrac.  That kind of deal would price him onto the team; teams don’t give that sort of contract to players who are fighting for a roster spot. 

That’s a big jump to make—could Nicks accept that his value has dropped off so much?  He was a contributor for a playoff team down the stretch; surely, he could find a better deal than that?

I feel that Nicks is probably better than Simpson at this point in their respective careers.  Nicks is a situational player, at best, but he’s alright in those situations. 

As a third or fourth receiver, he’s not the worst option in the world—in fact, the only free agent I’d definitely have ranked above him at the moment is Michael Crabtree, and somehow I doubt the 49ers and Crabtree will reconcile for this upcoming season, especially in a backup receiver role.

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

The signing of Nicks would be similar to the 49ers adding Brandon Lloyd last season or Randy Moss in 2012.  Yes, Nicks is younger than either of those players and has more upside, but that’s the role we’re looking at here. 

If Nicks agreed to a contract like that—a higher base salary than Simpson is receiving, but with no guaranteed money in case he comes to training camp and bombs out—then yes, Nicks would be a solid addition to the team.

It would have to be a budget signing, however.  If Nicks is hoping to get a deal anywhere close to what he received last offseason, the 49ers would be best served ignoring Nicks and looking elsewhere for help at the position.

Bryan Knowles is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers.  Follow him @BryKno on Twitter.