The 49ers Should Steal This Upcoming Free Agent Away From the Seahawks After the 2020 Season

The San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks are bitter NFC West rivals and perennial contenders in the NFC. One of the best ways to hurt a rival team is to poach some of their best players in free agency that is familiar with the division, and the 49ers are in position to do that in 2021 with Seahawks safety Bradley McDougald.

The 49ers have already seen great success by using this strategy to sign Seahawks legend Richard Sherman, who was once a hated rival. On the other side, the Seahawks recently signed former 49ers stalwart Mike Iupati, so there's plenty of precedent for a move like this.

With the 49ers set to lose their own starting safety Jaquiski Tartt after 2020, signing the experienced McDougald would make sense.

After the departure of Earl Thomas, Bradley McDougald and Quandre Diggs stepped up and solidified the Seahawks' secondary in 2019. McDougald had been a starter for six seasons with Tampa Bay, so he was no stranger to anchoring a defensive backfield.

Tartt is likely to command a big contract, and the journeyman McDougald would likely be available at a discount. The 49ers already handed a big extension to safety Jimmie Ward, who is considered to be the better of the two safeties. They must shore up other free agents like Sherman, Kyle Juzczyk, Solomon Thomas, and Tevin Coleman. Letting Tartt walk would be a difficult choice given his talent, but it'd be much easier if they could bring in a solid starter like McDougald immediately.

The Seahawks have cap issues of their own, with K.J. Wright and Quinton Dunbar also in line for new contract. Seattle cannot keep all of their defenders, and they've shown a propensity for moving on from defensive players and developing high-quality talent to replace them.

With the 49ers in the peak of their competitive window, maximizing every advantage is critical. The 49ers could hurt Seattle and bolster their own roster by signing McDougald.

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Tristan Jung is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Tristan Jung also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username tristan1117. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.