We know the 49ers had a deal with Eric Kendricks before signing De’Vondre Campbell, but Kyle Shanahan said the team thought they had another linebacker in the fold.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan admitted the team made a mistake after bringing in De’Vondre Campbell this past season.
As we know, Campbell didn’t make it through Week 15 after refusing to play during the third quarter. Nick Bosa told reporters that Campbell was complaining before the game even started.
Campbell had been vocal at every stop before this, including going on Twitter last season and telling fans how the Green Bay Packers coaching staff had misused him. Campbell was confident, as you can see from his Instagram post below, that the 49ers would get the best version of himself:
I’m starting to think he’s the problem! https://t.co/adhYU3E5Aj pic.twitter.com/ulDpKfOryI
— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq) December 13, 2024
Campbell played two quality games in the middle of the season, but that was sandwiched into losing playing time to a second-year player.
Shanahan was asked about Campbell’s culture fit on Wednesday and if that was a concern in hindsight:
“It was tough losing Dre. We knew we were going to have to need a starting caliber linebacker. We had two guys that we thought we had committed that we lost in free agency and then another guy got cut after that and became available. I was with De’Vondre his rookie year in Atlanta so I knew what he was capable of.
Not that I was real close or anything with the defensive guys being the offensive coordinator there and everything, but I know we liked him in that building and a lot of guys who had coached him had been good. We obviously made a mistake, but it’s not something that you don’t look into. You look into everything and you weigh the risk and reward of stuff. You weigh the situations that you have and what decisions you can make in terms of the options. And by no means was it our first option, but at the time with what went down, we thought it was our best option and it didn’t work out.”
Campbell wasn’t the 49ers first choice. There are still press clippings on the internet of the Niners agreeing to terms with Eric Kendricks, who explained why he ended up signing with the Dallas Cowboys.
Who are these mystery linebackers that the 49ers tried to pursue other than Kendricks and Campbell? Patrick Queen fits the mold. The Baltimore Ravens didn’t pick up Queen’s fifth-year option. He ended up signing a 3-year contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers for $20.2 million.
Queen makes sense, as he came into this season with 48 pressures and eight sacks with Baltimore over the past two seasons. So he had that added element that the 49ers like from their linebackers.
Azeez Al-Shaair was a popular free agent last season. But many believed he was out of the 49ers price range. He signed a three-year, $34-million contract, including $21.5 million guaranteed. It was unlikely that San Francisco would fork over that kind of money for a third linebacker.
Lavonte David re-signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a one-year contract worth up to $9.5 million, which was fully guaranteed. Like Campbell, David was experienced and the Wylie old veteran. But David was coming off a down year, and at his age, that’s never the time you want to “buy” a player despite being one of the better coverage linebackers of the previous decade.
I’m still in the blind as far as figuring out who the linebacker who was released is. As for the second linebacker, Bobby Wagner makes a ton of sense. He’s 34, but he played alongside KJ Wright, a former Seahawks linebacker and a defensive quality control coach, and Nick Sorensen when he was in Seattle. So there had to be the Seahawks connection there.
Wagner signed a one-year deal worth $6.5 million, which the Niners could afford. Perhaps it was Seattle’s other linebacker, Jordyn Brooks, who signed with the Miami Dolphins, that the 49ers also pursued.
Regardless, this season could have been great for the development of Dee Winters. Sure, he’s been banged up and in and out of the lineup due to injury, but it was evident after one practice that Winters was the superior linebacker to Campbell.
Maybe this offseason, the 49ers will focus on playing and developing their youth rather than selecting players who are either approaching or already over the hill.