NFL Network analyst Michael Silver joined Joe, Lo and Dibs on 95.7 The Game on Monday morning in the midst of a conversation about former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant. The All-Pro receiver, who is hoping to continue his eight-year NFL career, still awaits a team of his liking to come calling. He already turned down an offer from the Baltimore Ravens and had expressed an interest in playing for the San Francisco 49ers.
Silver was asked which Bay Area team would be a better fit for Bryant.
"Well, Oakland likes old guys," he responded while laughing. "I love Jon (Gruden). If he had that stigma before, he's not trying to shake it even with a ten-year, $100 million deal where he could afford to build it up slowly. He's got the right demographic for Jon – a once-great player who is now perceived to be on the wrong side of age."
Meanwhile, 49ers general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan have five years remaining on their initial six-year deals with the team. Their franchise quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, signed a five-year deal in February, which puts his contract in line with his coach and general manager.
Make no mistake, Shanahan wants to win now. However, he doesn't want to do so at the cost of long-term success. The 49ers skipped on drafting an impactful pass rusher in April because they are willing to roll the dice on their current group, which includes lesser-known names (at least, nationally) like Cassius Marsh, Jeremiah Attaochu, and others. If that does not work out, the 49ers can always address the position next year and ensure they get a player who they feel is a perfect fit within defensive coordinator Robert Saleh's unit.
While the same can be said about the 49ers' current crop of receivers, the situation is a little different. San Francisco genuinely likes the young talent within the group and would prefer to see how it develops with more reps. The team lacks a big red-zone threat but already has a savvy veteran in Pierre Garçon. Garoppolo has never thrown an NFL pass to Garçon, who sustained a season-ending neck injury the day before the 49ers traded for the quarterback.
Like the situational pass rusher, there is no sense of urgency at wide receiver. That makes signing someone like Bryant unnecessary – for now. Of course, that could change should the Niners see an injury in training camp.
"When Kyle and John Lynch got those six-year deals, I think they smartly realized, 'We don't have to be good instantly. We're in a rare situation where we have a little time,'" Silver said. "The 49ers have a lot to be excited about. I think schematically, Kyle is going to show some of the brilliance we couldn't see early on because he didn't have a quarterback who could execute it at that level and, obviously, with Jimmy, there's a lot of excitement.
"If I were the 49ers, I would think hard about signing guys that I thought were short-term band-aid-type guys and I would continue trying to build it."
As for Garoppolo, Silver was impressed with what the quarterback was able to achieve last season.
"I went to that Jacksonville game and what I saw there, not only was Jimmy very, very good, but all of a sudden, Kyle was able to mess with people on a level that very few can," he said. "And it's similar to what Sean McVay can do with Jared Goff and the Rams, and that makes this really, really exciting. We saw an arms race over the offseason where they were each adding guys for a while, and the Rams probably took it up even another notch.
"Sean and Kyle, they have similar roots. They know each other very, very well. There's a ton of mutual respect, and they are insanely competitive with one another. And I think that's going to permeate all the way down into those locker rooms, hopefully for years to come."