Singletary's Making Moves

From Tom FitzGerald of the SF Chronicle:

The first casualties of Mike Singletary's 49ers regime were outside linebacker Tully Banta-Cain and free safety Keith Lewis, each of whom was released Tuesday.

Neither move was a major surprise. Banta-Cain had given the 49ers only four sacks in two years after signing an $8.9 million free-agent contract in 2007. Lewis started nine games in 2006 but none since then. He was a standout on special teams, but the 49ers seem determined to upgrade their secondary as well as their pass rush.

Banta-Cain, who played at Fremont High in Sunnyvale and at Cal, has two Super Bowl rings from his four years with the Patriots. He started 10 games for the 49ers in 2007 but had all of 3.5 sacks. After agreeing to a substantial pay cut, he sat on the inactive list at the start of the 2008 season before playing in 12 games but had only half a sack.

Lewis, a Sacramento native who was a sixth-round pick by the 49ers out of Oregon in 2004, couldn't displace Mark Roman in the lineup the last two years even though Roman didn't have a single interception in that time.

The moves save the 49ers $3.475 million in salary-cap space, $2.575 million for Banta-Cain and $900,000 for Lewis, whose $216,668 in prorated bonus money will count against the 2009 cap.

Another player who is expected to go is offensive tackle Jonas Jennings. If he is waived, $4.2 million in base salary would be wiped from the books. However, the 49ers still would be on the hook for $2.392 million in prorated bonus money from is $6.5 million signing bonus guaranteed in 2005.

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