Dee Ford’s potential release will end frustrating tenure with 49ers

When the San Francisco 49ers decided to pull the trigger and go all-in on Dee Ford, they knew they were taking a gamble. For most of his first few years in the league with the Kansas City Chiefs, the talented pass rusher had been a late bloomer limited by injuries once he’d grown into a starting role. Still, elite pass rushers in the NFL are hard to find and Ford had finally put it all together in 2018.

As one of our favorite writers, Terez A. Paylor, used to say: “The contract year is undefeated.”

On Wednesday, it’s quite possible the 49ers will announce the end of Ford’s stint with the team by releasing him outright. On Monday, Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan noted that he didn’t expect Ford to return this season in a year already ruined by injuries. On Tuesday, the winds had shifted to include a potential release as Mike Florio reports that Ford was telling teammates he was expecting to be cut by Wednesday.

The release of Dee Ford will signal the end of a frustrating tenure with the 49ers.

Whether Ford is released now or later, the truth is that his time is up in San Francisco. It’s also true that the last three years have been nothing but frustrating for all parties involved. The cost of acquisition alone with a late second-round pick back in the 2019 NFL Draft, which the Chiefs used to add linebacker Willie Gay Jr. to the roster, and the Niners then rewarded Ford with a lucrative contract extension to the tune of five years, $85 million.

Given all of that investment, the 49ers naturally wanted to see some significant returns but they never materialized for Shanahan and company. Instead of seeing him slot in alongside the talent they already had up front—remember the Niners had DeForest Buckner, Solomon Thomas, Arik Armstead, and Nick Bosa—the star pass rusher hardly ever saw the field.

After playing 1,022 snaps with the Chiefs in his final season, Ford would average just over a tenth of that through three seasons with the 49ers (378 total snaps over three years). The final tally in production is 22 tackles, 9.5 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles in 18 career games in San Fran.

What makes things even tougher is knowing how the deal for Ford stopped the Niners from making other moves. The 49ers were forced to trade Buckner to the Colts because of salary cap concerns, and while they got a first-round pick back in the mix, there’s no doubt the 49ers would love to have Bucker anchoring their line long-term instead of investing so much in Ford all this time.

While Ford has tremendous talent—asnd perhaps one of the NFL’s greatest bursts off the line for a pass rusher—Chiefs fans know the frustration well of asking week after week (after week) if Ford was going to be available. The Chiefs were so tired of the questions that they moved heaven and earth to completely redo the defensive line and import Frank Clark as their new cornerstone. The Niners decided to take the risk and they’ve been frustrated ever since.