Tag: 49ers cap space

49ers have draft picks, cap space for quick return to Super Bowl form

Are the 49ers positioned for a bounce-back 2025 NFL season?

After stumbling to a 6-11 finish in 2024, the San Francisco 49ers embark upon a pivotal offseason.

Despite slumping to the NFC West cellar, the puzzle pieces could quickly fall back into place for the 49ers to march right back into Super Bowl contention.

Pro Football Focus examined all 32 NFL teams by offseason assets and San Francisco is positioned very well in that regard.

Pro Football Focus measured teams’ offseason assets by grouping draft capital, cap space and restructure potential. According to PFF, the 49ers have the seventh-best means to get better.

PFF ranked San Francisco’s 2025 NFL draft capital as the ninth-best in the league. The 49ers are expected to have 10 picks in the 2025 NFL draft, including the No. 11 overall pick and four in the first three rounds.

Plus, the 49ers have the 10th-most effective cap space of any NFL team. Effective cap space is the the cap space a team will have after signing at least 51 players and its projected rookie class to its roster.

That’s a lot of retooling ammo for San Francisco.

A recent two-round mock from The Athletic’s Dane Brugler sees the 49ers addressing their trenches in the first two rounds by drafting Missouri offensive lineman Armand Membou and Ole Miss defensive tackle Walter Nolen.

Some help up front on both sides of the football seems like a logical step toward the 49ers returning to championship contention. Four picks in the draft’s first two days and 10 selections overall gives San Francisco a chance to seriously bolster its offensive and defensive lines.

Looking for another talented edge rusher in this draft to pair with Nick Bosa could work wonders for the franchise as well. San Francisco could also use some help at cornerback after Charvarius Ward indicated he may not be back with the franchise once he enters free agency.

San Francisco will address some of its needs via free agency as well. If the 49ers opt against bringing Dre Greenlaw back, an experienced linebacker to pair with Fred Warner feels like a necessity for the 49ers’ defense.

The great news for San Francisco fans is that general manager John Lynch and the franchise have plenty of avenues with which to enhance this roster for 2025.

Beyond any roster moves with the draft and free agency, San Francisco also feels like an obvious bounce-back candidate based on improved health alone.

Healthy returns for injured stars such as left tackle Trent Williams, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and running back Christian McCaffrey should set the stage for the 49ers’ offense to be vastly improved.

Mix in the emergence of wide receivers Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall to go along with a resurgent season from Deebo Samuel and the 49ers have the offensive skill weapons to be one of the league’s best offenses.

San Francisco finished the 2024 season with the NFL’s No. 4 total offense but just its No. 14 scoring offense.

Some savvy drafting, several key free agent acquisitions and improved health could pave the way back toward Super Bowl contention in 2025.

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6 players who may be too expensive for 49ers to keep in 2025

There’s no way the 49ers let some of these guys go.

With quarterback Brock Purdy’s contract extension likely getting done this offseason, the San Francisco 49ers will need to start adjusting their finances to accommodate a high-dollar QB contract on their books.

Those changes will start this offseason with some free agents potentially getting priced out of what the 49ers are able to afford over the next handful of years. We may also see a handful of cuts made to help manage the team’s cap.

Over the Cap listed six 49ers who could exit as cap casualties during the 2025 offseason, and it includes a couple staples of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s tenure.

Here are the six players:

FB Kyle Juszczyk

Juszczyk already took a paycut last offseason and releasing him would mean a fundamental change in how the 49ers’ offense operates. Unless they draft a replacement for him this year. Perhaps Shanahan is ready to move on from his ultra-reliable fullback as he enters his age 34 season. Juszczyk in 2024 posted three total touchdowns – his most since 2020 – and made his ninth consecutive Pro Bowl.

WR Deebo Samuel

This could get a little weird with Samuel. General manager John Lynch said the team expects to retain Samuel in the final year of the three-year contract he signed in 2022. He had a down year in 2024 and cutting him as a post June 1 release would save them a little money in 2025. However, they’d likely try to explore a trade first if they were hellbent on letting go of the 29-year-old receiver.

WR Jauan Jennings

Cutting Jennings after his breakout 2025 campaign would be pretty wild, especially since he’s relatively inexpensive. Ricky Pearsall and Jacob Cowing are question marks entering their second seasons, Samuel may be on the wrong side of his prime and Brandon Aiyuk’s return from a knee injury may take some time. The 49ers need good players at WR, and Jennings proved he fits that bill with 975 receiving yards in 2024.

DL Maliek Collins

San Francisco needs to overhaul its defensive line and Collins had a nice year in 2024. Cutting him wouldn’t save the 49ers much and it would leave a significant hole in the middle of their defensive line.

DL Yetur Gross-Matos

It’ll be interesting to see if the 49ers run it back with Gross-Matos, who had a disappointing year after signing a two-year deal last offseason. He suffered a knee injury in the preseason and tried to battle through it before landing on IR. He fits the mold of the versatile defensive end who can rush the passer from the interior. But saving nearly $3 million by letting him go may be worth trying to find another option to fill that type of role.

DL Leonard Floyd

Floyd came on strong at the end of the season, but he wasn’t as productive throughout the year as the 49ers may have hoped. They don’t have many defensive end options so Floyd may stick around just out of necessity. If the 49ers want to invest more at DE though, they can save a little less than $2 million by parting ways with the 32-year-old Floyd.

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49ers salary cap space in good spot entering 2025 offseason

The 49ers salary cap management is pretty good.

The San Francisco 49ers find themselves in an advantageous spot with the salary cap entering the 2025 offseason.

While Brock Purdy’s pending extension will undoubtedly force the club to make some adjustments to their spending long-term, it isn’t likely to have a substantial impact this offseason. Thanks to some contract maneuvering last season, the 49ers will enter 2025 more than $47 million under the projected $272.5 million salary cap according to Over the Cap.

Thanks to an NFL-high $50,096,964 in carryover space from the 2024 season, the 49ers will have the 12th-most cap space entering the offseason.

Here’s what each team’s salary cap space is according to OTC:

1. New England Patriots: $122,067,139
2. Las Vegas Raiders: $107,308,173
3. Washington Commanders: $96,028,698
4. Arizona Cardinals: $81,576,219
5. Chicago Bears: $80,486,337
6. Los Angeles Chargers: $74,428,749
7. Minnesota Vikings: $71,330,620
8. Green Bay Packers: $61,381,852
9. Detroit Lions: $59,127,286
10. Cincinnati Bengals: $57,138,434
11. Los Angeles Rams: $56,570,193
12. San Francisco 49ers: $56,564,041
13. Pittsburgh Steelers: $54,303,012
14. Denver Broncos: $53,471,089
15. New York Giants: $53,435,270
16. Tennessee Titans: $49,842,691
17. Jacksonville Jaguars: $35,765,938
18. Indianapolis Colts: $32,703,628
19. Carolina Panthers: $29,083,104
20. New York Jets: $27,854,725
21. Philadelphia Eagles: $25,662,494
22. Baltimore Ravens: $23,455,824
23. Kansas City Chiefs: $19,945,685
24. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: $19,935,539
25. Dallas Cowboys: $14,998,777
26. Houston Texans: $6,909,720
27. Atlanta Falcons: $4,039,709
28. Buffalo Bills: $2,012,780
29. Miami Dolphins: -$2,827,083
30. Seattle Seahawks: -$16,465,244
31. Cleveland Browns: -$23,390,523
32. New Orleans Saints: -$51,390,583

For the 49ers their cap space will need to be carefully managed since they will have some dead money on their books over the next couple of seasons, and in the near future Purdy’s cap number will skyrocket and make things a little trickier in terms of keeping or signing high-priced talent.

With plenty of holes to fill on both sides of the ball, how the 49ers manage the advantageous place they’re in from a cap standpoint entering the offseason will play a key role in determining how quickly they bounce back and how wide they can open a new Super Bowl window.

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49ers actually created salary cap space in 2024 with Brandon Aiyuk contract

The 49ers now have the 2nd-most cap space in the NFL after getting the Brandon Aiyuk deal done.

The San Francisco 49ers wound up saving money on wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk this season by getting his long-term extension done.

Aiyuk was due a fully-guaranteed $14,124,000 with the fifth-year option on his rookie deal. There was always going to be an opportunity for them to lower that $14.12 million cap hit with a new contract, but details have given us an exact cap number for him in 2024.

According to Over the Cap, Aiyuk’s salary cap hit in 2024 is now $5,725,000. That means the 49ers actually save $8,399,000 against the cap this season. His cap hit jumps to $11,191,000 in 2025, and then $16,223,000 the following year.

While there are no guarantees beyond the 2026 season, Aiyuk’s cap hits skyrocket to $42,282,000 in 2027 and $44,158,000 in 2028 – both numbers that figure to be reduced dramatically via a restructured deal or an extension if he’s going to stay with San Francisco.

The 49ers are now sitting with the second-most cap space in the NFL according to OTC. They’re at $48,231,713 in available room, just behind the Browns who have north of $51 million in space.

That number will come down some once Trent Williams is back with the club. He’s not on the roster as of August 31, so his cap hit doesn’t factor into the 49ers’ total. Still, they’ll have plenty of cap space to maneuver during the season while also having some rollover room going into 2025.

Salary cap space will start to become something the 49ers will have to watch very carefully with Williams’ deal coming, and quarterback Brock Purdy’s megadeal looming next offseason.

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Trey Lance will cost 49ers more than Brock Purdy in 2024

Lol Trey Lance is going to cost the #49ers about the same against the cap this year as their entire QB room combined.

Everything about the Trey Lance era in San Francisco is strange. From the discourse and reporting around which quarterback the team was targeting in the 2021 draft, to his tenure with the team, to his eventual trade just ahead of the 2023 season – Lance’s third with the team. All the while Lance had to battle a veteran quarterback (Jimmy Garoppolo) who was on his way out the door for both of Lance’s first two seasons, only for Lance to have his spot taken by the final pick in the 2022 draft. It turns out we’re not quite done with the Lance oddities just yet.

Because of the nature of rookie contracts, when the 49ers traded Lance to the Cowboys for a fourth-round pick during the 2023 preseason, they had to eat some of the money left on his deal.

The 49ers will carry a $5,540,956 dead cap hit from Lance, which means the 2021 No. 3 overall pick and current backup QB for the Dallas Cowboys, will cost San Francisco more against the cap than their starting quarterback Brock Purdy.

Purdy in the third year of his four-year rookie contract will count for $1,004,253 against the cap. That makes Lance $4,536,703 more expensive for San Francisco than their starting quarterback for this season.

If we want to go a step further, Lance’s $5,540,956 cap hit for the 49ers will cost the team about as much as their entire QB room. Purdy, Brandon Allen, Joshua Dobbs and Tanner Mordecai are slated to cost $5,597,586 against the cap – just $56,630 more than Lance.

Ultimately that $4.5ish million is a drop in the bucket that hasn’t had any real impact on the 49ers’ offseason. And once Purdy is getting paid at or near the top of the market by the time he signs an extension, presumably next offseason, the Lance deal will be entirely off the books for San Francisco.

Alas, the Lance era was odd and this is one last small reminder of his tenure before the page turns for good.

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49ers have plenty of cap space to work with after June 1

The 49ers suddenly have a boatload of cap space. So what do they do with it?

The 49ers went from right up against the salary cap to well under it thanks to the clearance of Arik Armstead’s deal, which was given a post-June 1 designation when they released him.

San Francisco is now sitting with $25,245,331 in cap space according to Over the Cap.

There are a handful of ways this can matter.

First, it gives them additional headroom to add a free agent or two as the offseason progresses. They weren’t likely to pay anyone at this part of the year a massive sum anyway, but the extra room helps.

This also allows them some added flexibility with Brandon Aiyuk’s extension. They’ll likely trim some of the money from his $14 million cap hit this year by pushing some into the future, but it’s less of a necessity now and an extension won’t add money to his cap hit.

There’s also the Christian McCaffrey aspect of this. He may be looking for a new contract that adds some money after he won Offensive Player of the Year last season. The 49ers could now tack on more money this year, although the more likely scenario is that his deal will guarantee more money in the future.

Perhaps most importantly for the 49ers though is that the cap space from this year will roll over into the 2025 offseason. San Francisco, per OTC, is about $41 million over the projected $260 million 2025 salary cap. Having space to roll over will be helpful in giving the club additional room to maneuver next year.

What the added space won’t do is facilitate an extension for Aiyuk. It’s important to note that their cap space in 2024 is unlikely to be adversely impacted by that contract. Any delay at this point is due to ongoing negotiations and not the 49ers’ 2024 cap space.

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49ers should be hoping for highest possible salary cap in 2024

The #49ers could get some offseason assistance from a higher-than-projected salary cap.

The 49ers aren’t in salary cap hell thanks to some savvy contract gymnastics and a quarterback room that costs something just north of minimum wage, but a higher-than-projected cap number for 2024 would be extremely helpful for them.

Over the Cap projects the 2024 salary cap to be $242 million. By that number the 49ers are $12,375,835 over the cap, but they’ll have more than $35 million rolling over from restructures in 2023 that should give them a little bit of wiggle room under the cap. A couple of other contract maneuvers could put them far enough under the cap to be real players in free agency.

That’s all true with a $242 million cap, but multiple reports from Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio indicate the number could be closer to $243 million, and perhaps as high as $250 million.

Every dollar counts in a hard-capped league, and the 49ers are going to be living on the edge of that cap for the foreseeable future with most of their big contracts restructured to kick the money can down the road. They’ve likely been operating around that $242 million number. If it gets up to or near $250 million, it could mean a more comfortable and aggressive offseason for the 49ers instead of one where they’re just trying to ensure they’re under the cap.

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