NFC Notes: 49ers, Cardinals, Rams

49ers

• Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area mentions that C Weston Richburg has no injury protection in his contract and that the 49ers could save around $4.5 million by releasing him in the third year of his five-year, $47.5 million deal he signed in 2018.
• Maiocco also points out that DE Dee Ford is set to earn a base salary of $15.15 million in 2021 and would likely be a cap casualty this offseason, yet GM John Lynch remains unsure if he will be ready to return next season.
• According to Maiocco, this creates an issue since Ford has an injury guarantee in his contract. If he is still on the team by April 1st, $11.6 million of his base salary becomes fully guaranteed regardless of his health.

Cardinals

Cardinals GM Steve Keim mentioned that he has “tough decisions” at hand when referring to free-agents WR  Larry Fitzgerald, RB Kenyan Drake, OLB Haason Reddick, and Peterson. 

“There are so many moving parts right now,” Keim said, via Darren Urban of the team’s official site. . “In some of these situations, and I am not speaking toward Pat, there are tough decisions that have to be made. In 2013, when I became general manager, the first thing I did was release Adrian Wilson. You know how close and near and dear he is to my heart. It comes with the territory to make tough decisions.”

• As for the Cardinals potentially pursuing free-agent DL J.J. Watt, Keim said that they will “certainly take a swing” if the situation is right: “If there’s an opportunity that makes sense from the football side and the business side, we’ll certainly take a swing.”
• Keim mentioned that he will likely know more about Peterson’s situation “over the next couple of weeks” after the NFL’s salary cap was determined to be $181 million for 2021: “Over the next couple of weeks I think we’ll know a lot more, once we get a hard cap from the league and understand where the market is.”
• Keim added that OLB Chandler Jones, who carries a cap hit of $20.8 million next season, is not at risk of being a cap-casualty: “I’ll reject that.”

Rams

• Jourdan Rodrigue reports that the Rams and OL coach/run game coordinator Aaron Kromer have agreed to “mutually part ways” and that his son Zak Kromer will remain in his offensive quality control position with the team.
• Rodrigue expects the team to replace Kromer with someone from within the organization and adds that Kromer will not have a problem finding a new job based on recent comments made about him by Rams’ HC Sean McVay.
• Rodrigue says to watch for the team to use the franchise tag on S John Johnson, especially given the salary cap situation for 2021.

• According to Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News, the Rams recently interviewed Giants assistant OL coach Ben Wilkerson for the same position on their staff.