To steal Eagles’ Javon Hargrave, 49ers needed special permission. Here’s why
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San Francisco 49ers QB Josh Johnson (17) is sacked by Philadelphia Eagles DT Javon Hargrave (97) during the second quarter of the NFC Championship game at Lincoln Financial Field, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2023.
You thought the San Francisco 49ers had their sights on Eagles defensive tackle Javon Hargrave all along, but they insist they had planned to be frugal in free agency — until they realized they could have him if they blew the budget. So, general manager John Lynch went to owner Jed York, looking for some extra spending money: Roughly $81 million.
“We went to Jed and had a discussion about, ‘Hey, at some point, you’ve got to pull back, but we’d like to go after it this year,’” Lynch told the San Francisco Chronicle. “’We’ve got a game-changer we think will improve our team.’ And Jed and the family supported us and said, ‘I like it.’
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“He actually said, before he knew who it was, ‘I want a game-changer if we’re going to do that. I don’t want a bunch of average guys. I want a game-changer.’ I said, ‘Well, we’ve got the guy for you.’”
Even Hargrave said he was “shocked” the Niners would make a play for him.
“... Leaving Philly, I was fortunate enough to play with a bunch of dogs. And just seeing the 49ers last year when we played them in a championship game, we saw how many dogs they had over there,” Hargrave said.
“So it really was shocking to me that they called me and asked me to come over here because a team like that doesn’t really pay somebody like me to come over here. So I was just happy to be a part of all these dogs over here. They got a lot of talent, too, and it’s just an easier transition.”
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Hargrave received $40 million guaranteed as part of a four-year deal that included $23 million in a straight-to-his-bank-account signing bonus. And now the expectation is that the up-front cash will restore the 49ers’ up-front dominance.
Last season, the 49ers had the NFL’s top-ranked defense, despite their pass-rush pressure being pedestrian by their standards. They ranked 10th in the NFL in sacks, with no player besides All-Pro defensive end Nick Bosa registering more than five. In their final two playoff games, they had just two sacks, both at the line of scrimmage.
Lynch and Shanahan came to the same conclusion early in the offseason when discussing ways to improve a 13-4 team that entered the NFC title game on a 12-game winning streak: They could get over the hump by getting their front four back to its 2019 level, when the 49ers reached their last Super Bowl.
“We felt like we had fallen off maybe just a tad on the D-line,” Lynch said. “It wasn’t as dominant as we were accustomed to maybe back in ‘19. We wanted to get back to that.”
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