The 49ers on Monday went to work on their salary cap situation once the negotiating window for free agents opened at 9:00 am PST. They managed to add roughly $6 million to their salary cap figure after signing Arik Armstead to a long-term deal and trading DeForest Buckner.
The Armstead deal, a five-year, $85 million deal with $45.85 million guaranteed. His cap hits are pushed toward the back of the deal, so his cap hit in 2020 is just $6 million.
Shortly after inking Armstead to his new contract, the team dealt DeForest Buckner and his $12 million cap hit to the Colts in exchange for Indianapolis’ first-round pick.
That leaves the 49ers $16,245,099 under the $198,200,000 salary cap according to Over the Cap. They now have the 23rd-most cap space in the league, with a possible restructure coming on Jerick McKinnon’s deal, and some potential cuts that would provide additional cap relief.
San Francisco’s to-do list for the rest of the offseason isn’t long. George Kittle is eligible for an extension, which the team will want to get done sooner rather than later. They also have unrestricted free agents Jimmie Ward and Emmanuel Sanders due to hit the market Wednesday when free agency opens.
Their newfound cap space probably won’t be ample enough to cover all of those things plus a draft class, but the additional flexibility will allow them to be more competitive in the free agent market than they would’ve been with the room they had entering the offseason.
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