Niners owner says offseason exodus tied to Brock Purdy deal - ESPN

PALM BEACH, Fla. — On the heels of the San Francisco 49ers' free agent exodus, owner Jed York spent part of Tuesday morning explaining the reasoning for the team's offseason approach publicly for the first time.

According to York, the decision to bid farewell to 17 players via free agency, trade or release and not spend much on outside free agents was largely tied to the payday coming soon for quarterback Brock Purdy.

It's why York chuckled and shrugged off the notion that he's been «cheap» this offseason after ranking at or near the top of the league in spending over the past five years.

«I've been called worse,» York said. «I get it. Fans care. You want to win. And when you're in a world where everybody is watching the NFL the first week of free agency or at least the first few days of free agency, it's a frenzy.… When you're not overly active in that space, it gets easy to say 'Oh, you don't want to win.'… I don't know that, as we looked at the board, that there was somebody that we felt made that type of an impact more so than making the decision to try to go pay Brock.»

As far back as last year's league meeting in Orlando, York has maintained that he is looking forward to signing off on what will be one of the most significant raises in NFL history.

Despite Purdy's uneven 2024 season in which key members of his supporting cast were injured for much of the season and the quarterback's numbers dipped from the near-MVP-level performance he had in 2023; York remains steadfast in wanting to keep Purdy for the long haul.

As the Niners assessed their roster-building approach for this offseason after dropping to 6-11 and again failing to break through for the franchise's sixth Lombardi Trophy, York said the team solidified