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How Releasing Arik Armstead Has Impacted the 49ers Locker Room

Just a few years ago, the 49ers stars all vacationed together in Cabo with head coach Kyle Shanahan. Those days are long gone. Now everyone is out to get theirs.

Grant Cohn

Oct 29, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Arik Armstead (91) reacts after a sack against the Cincinnati Bengals during the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 29, 2023; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Arik Armstead (91) reacts after a sack against the Cincinnati Bengals during the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports / Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
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Something has changed with the 49ers culture.

For years, the best players all sacrificed money because they believed the organization would take care of them and that they would win a Super Bowl. But now they've lost two Super Bowls, and the organization just released Arik Armstead, who was the 49ers' longest-tenured player and a perennial Walter Payton Man of the Year Candidate.

Armstead's body clearly is breaking down and releasing him was the right move for the 49ers, but he was extremely respected in the locker room. He was a captain and a leader and a mentor to lots of young players. And the 49ers tried to slash his salary from $18 million to $6 million before they eventually released him.

If the 49ers would do that to a captain who has been with the organization for nine years, they would do that to anyone. And so suddenly, all the star players are fighting to get every penny that they're worth.

Christian McCaffrey had no guaranteed money left on his deal and he's a 27-year-old running back. If he gets injured this year and misses lots of games, the 49ers might want to cut him. So he held out of OTAs and fought for a new contract, which the 49ers gave him.

Trent Williams has no guaranteed money left on his deal and he misses a few games every season. If he misses more than a few games this year, the 49ers could cut him because he's getting old. So now he reportedly wants a new deal, too.

Just a few years ago, the 49ers stars all vacationed together in Cabo with head coach Kyle Shanahan. Those days are long gone. Now everyone is out to get theirs.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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