Darnell Dockett picks San Francisco 49ers as his new NFL home

The San Francisco 49ers have added some depth along their defensive line, and it came at the expense of the Arizona Cardinals. The 49ers agreed to terms with defensive linemen Darnell Dockett on Thursday for a two-year deal.

Dockett was once one of the league’s most dominant 3-4 defensive ends. Age is starting to take a toll though. He missed all of 2014 due to injury, and was showing signs of slowing down in 2013 as well.

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Dockett will be key depth at defensive end for the 49ers. Both starters are also getting up there in age, which increases the chances of injuries. Since none of their recent draft picks at the position have panned out, the 49ers will need Dockett on the roster and ready to play significant snaps this season.

The interesting aspect of this signing is that the 49ers are severely lacking in salary cap space. They have less than $2 million in usable cap space, and that is before Dockett’s contract becomes official.

The exact details and structure of his contract aren’t known yet, but it appears that Dockett’s contract is going to account around $3.5 against the 49ers cap this season. That means that they must clear around $1.5 million in cap space before this deal can become official.

It has already been reported that wide receiver Stevie Johnson will be cut if they cannot agree on a pay cut in time. With the cap space now needed, that move could happen at any time now.

The 49ers weren’t expected to add anyone significant this offseason because of their salary cap troubles. They already cannot afford to re-sign any of their own players with expiring contracts. Players like Frank Gore, Michael Crabtree and Chris Culliver are all free agents that the team cannot afford to retain.

Dockett was on the radar for the Seahawks this offseason as well. The thought was that he would provide a cheap backup at DT, much in the same way that Kevin Williams did last season. This clearly isn’t a critical miss by Seattle, but it still would have been nice to fill that spot in the rotation quickly.