Following months of being out on the open market, veteran safety Eric Reid finally landed with a team, inking a one-year deal for the rest of the 2018 season with the Carolina Panthers. Shortly after that, NFL reporter Jim Trotter revealed the San Francisco 49ers made a strong run to bring back Reid earlier this week prior to his decision to join the Panthers.
The 49ers have informed me that their offer to Eric Reid this week was only for one year. https://t.co/bZ6y7h9TLB
— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) September 27, 2018
There had been no previous talk about the 49ers being interested in bringing Reid back into the fold. He previously expressed that he would have been willing to return at the same salary of his last deal with the team. However, there wasn't any significant movement on that end that could have played a part in him deciding to join Carolina instead.
The Panthers also offer him a better chance at winning, emphasized with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo suffering a season-ending ACL tear in Sunday's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Carolina has won two out of their first three games that could have them in position to make a strong push to the playoffs once again. Reid could also quickly swoop in as a key part of their secondary while stabilizing that unit of the defense moving forward this season.
However, the fact that the 49ers made a push to ink Reid at this point is quite intriguing given the lack of serious chatter toward that previously. The front office indicated at various points of the offseason that the team could visit that route at some point, but it never truly transpired over the summer. If anything, it shows that Reid had his options prior to making his return to the league.
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