Ex49ers Megastar Sign Contract Deal With Rams Declining Jacksonville Jaguars Offer….
Defensive lineman Arik Armstead is signing a 3-year, $51 million contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The San Francisco 49ers released Armstead on Wednesday after he and the team failed to work out a restructured contract.
He is coming off a season in which he played in 12 games with 27 tackles and five sacks for the NFC champion 49ers.
He also is coming off a torn meniscus in his right knee, an injury he suffered in a Dec. 3 win at the Philadelphia Eagles. Armstead finished that game after suffering the injury on the second play, but he did not play again until the Jan. 20 NFC divisional round win against the visiting Green Bay Packers.
Armstead, 30, appeared in all three of San Francisco’s playoff games, posting 11 tackles, a sack, 7 quarterback pressures and a fumble recovery on 148 snaps. He said in February that while knee surgery will require a lengthy recovery, his hope is to be ready to return sometime in late July or August as training camps get underway.
San Francisco originally used the No. 17 pick in the 2015 NFL draft on Armstead. He began his career as a defensive end, but after dealing with myriad injuries early in his career, he transitioned into an interior role in 2019. A breakout 10-sack season that year helped him land a five-year, $85 million deal early in 2020 free agency.
Over nine seasons in San Francisco, Armstead played in 116 regular-season games, posting 33.5 career sacks. He also has appeared in 12 postseason games, registering eight sacks.
Armstead was not only San Francisco’s longest-tenured player, he has been a philanthropic staple in the Bay Area and in his hometown of Sacramento. For the past four years, he has been the Niners’ nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.
Why the Bears traded Justin Fields to the Steelers
But that’s not what he was facing with the Bears.
Instead of having a proven starter like Smith, the Bears had Justin Fields entering his fourth season with questions about his development. Adding a No. 1 pick like USC quarterback Caleb Williams to the mix, even just for offseason workouts and training camp, might have made the situation untenable, or at least awkward for both players. With several Bears players recently voicing strong support for Fields, the potential for locker room discord had to be considered.
Poles avoided that scenario by trading Fields to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night for a 2025 sixth-round pick, which converts to a fourth-rounder if Fields plays 51% of the offensive snaps this season.
“You just can’t [have both on the roster],” an NFL assistant coach told ESPN prior to the trade. “The league called Chicago’s bluff, and won.
“They’re not getting anything for [Fields], and just need to let him go.”
Clearly, it wasn’t the compensation Poles originally sought. A source with knowledge of the team’s plans told ESPN the Bears had initially eyed a Day 2 draft selection plus a late conditional 2025 pick. Six teams, including Pittsburgh, came with a variety of offers, with most envisioning Fields as a backup.
Through a flurry of QB activity, Fields’ market was shrinking. After being unable to move Fields before the start of free agency, multiple NFL front office sources told ESPN they believed Chicago’s best chance to get the compensation it desired — or close to it — would be if a team missed out on the quarterback it hoped to draft in April.
Poles also could have waited until the beginning of the season, and when a starting quarterback got injured, engaged that team in trade talks.
But when Poles said during the combine in February he wanted to “do right” by Fields, that meant not subjecting him to a prolonged period before he was dealt. It also meant not dealing him to a team that had a young starting quarterback, and the Steelers fit that criteria after signing Russell Wilson to a one-year deal.
