The obvious initial reaction most had to the news that the San Francisco 49ers released star linebacker Aldon Smith after another alcohol-related arrest was to look at the off-field issues surrounding the troubled young pass rusher.
As 49ers head coach Jim Tomsula indicated Friday afternoon, Smith's issues with substance abuse should be the first concern here. He's on the verge of throwing away a promising career because of a chemical dependency most of us have dealt with (directly or indirectly) in our personal lives.
Though, life must go on in the world of football. San Francisco's preparation for the 2015 season doesn't abruptly come to an end because one of its best players is no longer on the roster. Instead, it now needs to find a replacement for Smith in the starting lineup—something that's going to be incredibly difficult.
Ahmad Brooks has one starting outside linebacker job wrapped up. This means the likes of Corey Lemonier, Aaron Lynch and rookie Eli Harold will be competing for the other job. Fortunately for San Francisco, these are three extremely talented young pass-rush options. Unfortunately, none of them have the extensive level of success we saw from Smith in the past.
Lynch, a second-year player from South Florida, was already challenging Brooks for one of the starting outside linebacker jobs. He's likely going to be the starter opposite Brooks when Week 1 comes calling. All indications are that the talented pass rusher has been nothing less than impressive in camp thus far. This fits tightly into what he did as a rookie in limited playing time last year. Once considered a likely top-10 pick before off-field issues at Notre Dame, there's little doubt that Lynch has the ability to be an elite-level pass rusher in the NFL. He put up six sacks and graded out as the 21st-best 3-4 outside linebacker in the NFL last year (via Pro Football Focus). That's not too shabby from a rookie fifth-round draft pick.
Now with a full offseason under his belt, the expectation has to be that Lynch will be a solid force in the team's front seven. Considering Lynch played less than 30 snaps in over half of the games last season, he's likely going to get more of an opportunity to rack up the sacks in 2015.
Fantasy Slant
Lynch is the one guy to watch here. While Harold will likely get some play as the third outside linebacker, he's not going to be given a ton of opportunities to make a consistent impact. That's only magnified by the fact that Brooks has been nothing less than a three-down backer during his time in San Francisco. Considering Lynch held his own in limited snaps in coverage last season, he's also likely going to be a near three-down backer, which creates two different points. First off, his opportunities are going to be endless. Secondly, Harold probably won't see more than 15 snaps per game on a regular basis.
Look for something to the tune of 12-plus sacks with multiple forced fumbles from Lynch in 2015. That makes him a tremendous under-the-radar IDP outside linebacker option.