Tag: 49ers salary cap

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.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

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.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Reported numbers on Deommodore Lenoir contract are bargain for 49ers

These reported contract numbers for Deommodore Lenoir are wild. The 49ers got a steal.

Initial reports on a new contract for San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir made it clear the team got a good deal on their 25-year-old breakout star.

Additional numbers provided by Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports paint an even better picture for the 49ers in the deal.

Jones reported Lenoir’s five-year deal is worth $88.8 million. The original report said it was $92 million. That puts the average annual value at $17.76 million. Lenoir still lands as the No. 12 highest-paid CB in terms of average annual value.

The numbers that matter in NFL contracts are the guarantees, and Lenoir inked a deal for just $15.5 million guaranteed at signing according to Jones’s numbers. That’s a bargain for San Francisco. Denver Broncos Patrick Surtain II is in a tier above Lenoir, but his new deal landed him $40.7 million guaranteed at signing. Chicago Bears CB Jaylon Johnson got $43.8 million guaranteed at signing.

Jones also notes Lenoir’s contract includes $43.3 million guaranteed for injury.

Overall this deal won’t do much to impact the 49ers’ ability to fit a top-of-market contract for quarterback Brock Purdy in the offseason when he becomes eligible for an extension. It also helps San Francisco shore up its secondary with an ascending star at an extremely affordable price. If these are the final numbers, the 49ers got a steal.

Update

A further breakdown of the contract was published by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.

According to Florio, “only 17 percent of Lenoir’s deal is fully guaranteed at signing; that’s the smallest full-guaranteed portion for any cornerback making more than $2 million per year.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

49ers’ looming problem at cornerback

Much of the offseason focus has been on the future of the 49ers’ WR room, but they might have a bigger problem at CB.

We’ve spent a ton of time this offseason looking at the future of the 49ers’ receiving corps. Whether it’s Deebo Samuel or Brandon Aiyuk it sounds like there’s going to be some significant changes in that group next year. On the other side of the ball there’s perhaps an even bigger problem brewing. Neither of the 49ers’ top two CBs are under contract after the 2024 season and both are likely to get paid handsomely in free agency.

Both Charvarius Ward and Deommodore Lenoir are set to hit unrestricted free agency next offseason and San Francisco may not be able to pay both to stay.

According to Over the Cap the 49ers are over next year’s projected cap by $38 million. There are ways that they can and will create space, but with Brock Purdy’s extension likely coming next year San Francisco’s cap management will change dramatically. Keeping both of their top CBs might be impossible.

Ward told Kay Adams, host of ‘Up and Adams,’ that he’s “just trying to get the bag” next offseason, which makes sense given how well he played in 2023. If he backs that up with another All-Pro campaign he’ll be in for a sizable free agent deal that pushes north of the contract he signed with the 49ers in 2022 that had a $13.5 million average annual value with $18 million guaranteed.

Then there’s Lenoir who broke out with a career-year in 2023 that flashed his versatility as an inside/outside CB. Ideally the 49ers would do a Dre Greenlaw type of deal with him where they try and trade a longer-term commitment for a cheaper contract. The problem is Greenlaw agreed to his two-year, $16.4 million deal after he’d dealt with a slew of injury problems that had his long-term earning potential in flux.

Lenoir is not in the same boat. He’s purely an ascending player who could conceivably want to sign a deal now, but anything he’d be agreeing to ahead of the 2024 season would pale in comparison to the type of contract he’d get on the open market after another strong year this year.

There’s a chance the 49ers can do the cap gymnastics to keep one of the two, especially if one of them slips up a bit this season.

However, the looming free agency of both underscores how bare the cupboard might be for the 49ers at CB. San Francisco doesn’t even have a surefire third starting CB for this season, much less someone they’re comfortable penciling in as a long-term starter to replace one of Ward or Lenoir.

Ideally a couple players would step up this season to take the third and fourth CB spots and give the 49ers some hope of having multiple options to replace at least one of their starters should they exit next offseason. They drafted Renardo Green in the second round in hopes that he could become that player. Samuel Womack has started games for San Francisco over his three seasons, and second-year CB Darrell Luter Jr. is an interesting option as well. A handful of veterans will also be in the mix although Isaac Yiadom and Rock Ya-Sin are both on one-year contracts.

This will be a situation worth monitoring all year. San Francisco would love to see another great year from both Ward and Lenoir, but the better they are the more likely we are to see them leave for huge contracts next March.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Updated 49ers salary cap space heading into camp

The 49ers don’t have the salary cap space to make any big additions to their roster during training camp.

The 49ers aren’t likely to make any big free agent splashes as training camp gets set to open. They have just $12.1 million in available space for 2020 according to Over the Cap, which means any signings they do make leading up to the regular season will likely be smaller, depth-minded moves.

Some free agents like defensive end Jadeveon Clowney or cornerback Logan Ryan are enticing for a defense that’s already loaded, but those aren’t realistic targets unless they’re going to accept something well below market value. A game-wrecking pass rusher and a starting-caliber cornerback who can play outside or in the slot aren’t likely to come cheap in any scenario.

Where San Francisco could utilize some of that space is in the receiving corps if they feel the need to add more experience there. Players like Justin Hardy and Taylor Gabriel are two available receivers who know Kyle Shanahan’s offense. Defensive end Damontre Moore’s name has surfaced in rumors as well. He’s another cost-effective player with familiarity in San Francisco who could help the depth at a key spot.

Uncertainty on the cap moving into next season with George Kittle’s extension looming means the 49ers will probably aim to remain frugal until they know what Kittle’s deal is going to look like and the impact it’ll have on his cap number this season. Right now he’s scheduled for an extremely affordable $2.2 million cap hit.

There are ways the team can free up money either through cuts or contract restructures, but given the already limited roster space with COVID-19 forcing teams to prematurely trim their 90-man rosters, it’s hard to see the 49ers making any rash moves. Their offseason goal was continuity, and putting that in jeopardy with camp approaching wouldn’t make sense against their other offseason maneuvers.

[vertical-gallery id=659473]