Was Releasing Arik Armstead a Mistake?

Plan A for the 49ers this offseason was to get Arik Armstead to take a pay cut, which didn't go so well, considering he refused.

Plan B for the 49ers this offseason was to release Armstead and replace with the little cap space they had available. First, they signed Jordan Elliott, a free agent defensive tackle the Browns didn't want anymore, to a one-year, $5 million deal. Next, the 49ers traded a seventh-round pick to the Texans for Maliek Collins, a defensive tackle Houston didn't want anymore.

So the 49ers replaced Armstead with a platoon of specialists -- Elliott is the run defender, and Collins is the pass rusher. On paper, the 49ers got the short end of this trade, because Armstead just signed a three-year, $51 million contract with the Jaguars, which means he's still much more valuable on the open market than Elliott and Collins put together. Which is remarkable, considering Armstead is much older and less durable than those two.

The 49ers are banking on Armstead to continue missing time, and if he does, the 49ers won't regret releasing him. But if he stays healthy in 2024, the 49ers would have released him for nothing.

I understand why the 49ers wanted to move on from Armstead and replace him with durable players, but they didn't improve their defensive line. If they really wanted to replace Armstead, they should do so with their first-round pick, not a couple veteran castoffs.

It seems the 49ers just got worse at defensive tackle.