49ers’ Mike McGlinchey expects to be signed quickly once free agency begins

The San Francisco 49ers have already stated that they believe Mike McGlinchey will probably be playing elsewhere in 2023. The right tackle officially becomes a free agent next Wednesday, with other teams able to begin contract negotiations with him on Monday.

“That stinks. But could he miss his market? Sure,” general manager John Lynch said last week at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “And then, would we be interested? Of course we would. But I don’t see that happening. I see him being a coveted player.”

McGlinchey expects things to move quickly. He is in Philadelphia right now but will return home to the Bay Area this weekend and wait by the phone to hear how things develop.

“We got a lot of intel coming off of the week at the Combine and all that stuff, what’s going on and what we can expect to happen,” McGlinchey said on KNBR’s Papa & Lund show. “I think once Monday hits, I’ll probably have a pretty quick deal and a pretty quick decision to make and, hopefully, be signed by the first day of free agency.”

According to OverTheCap.com, the 49ers are about $6.4 million under the salary cap. With 20 players about to become unrestricted free agents, sacrifices will obviously be made. Tackles are tough to come by, so McGlinchey should be a highly-sought player.

Knowing the business, the offensive lineman saw what was coming.

“Obviously, it’s something that was expected,” McGlinchey said. “It’s something that the writing was kind of on the wall a little bit, in that regard. John and [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] both had conversations with me before I left the building about that, and it was something that we all kind of expected, but it’s definitely a tough deal.

“We have a lot of great players in the 49ers organization, which is why we’ve been so good for the last five years, and it makes it really hard to afford everybody. And we have a Hall of Fame and probably one of the greatest to play the tackle position (Trent Williams) on our team already, and it’s hard to imagine them paying top dollar for both.”