Tag: Trent Williams contract

Trent Williams contract figures make him highest-paid LT in NFL

Trent Williams is now the highest-paid LT in football on a per-year basis.

The San Francisco 49ers and left tackle Trent Williams have agreed to a new contract that makes Williams the highest-paid left tackle in the NFL.

Williams agreed to a restructured three-year deal that pays him $82.66 million with $48 million guaranteed at signing per Williams’s agency. He’s due $27.6 million per year, which is the highest average annual value among left tackles. Only Buccaneers right tackle Tristan Wirfs and Lions right tackle Penei Sewell make more annually at offensive tackle.

The contract ended a holdout that extended all the way through training camp and the preseason. Williams, 36, reported to the team facility Tuesday when he and his agency believed a deal was close enough to end the holdout. The deal was announced Tuesday afternoon after Williams spoke with reporters in a press conference.

At the press conference, Williams said he wanted to play until he’s 40-years old. He had no guaranteed money left on his three-year deal before the restructure. He’ll now have guarantees for the next two years through his age 37 season per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

Williams signed a six-year deal in the 2021 offseason. When he held out he had three years and $77 million left. He’ll now earn an additional five million with the $48 million guaranteed.

The 49ers will fine Williams $50,000 for each practice he missed, so the added funds will help offset some of those fines.

Now the three-time First-Team All-Pro is locked into a deal where he should finish out his career with the 49ers, and the 49ers can push their need at left tackle several years into the future. They can also move forward knowing they have the sport’s best OT protecting their franchise quarterback’s blind side for the foreseeable future.

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49ers check final offseason box, agree to reworked contract with Trent Williams

The 49ers and Trent Williams are finalizing a new deal to get him back with the team

The San Francisco 49ers are checking their final offseason box just days before the start of the season.

Not long after wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk agreed to his long-term contract extension, the 49ers and left tackle Trent Williams are finalizing a reworked deal that will get him back in the mix for 2024.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the adjusted contract is being finalized and Williams has a chance to play in Week 1 against the New York Jets on Monday Night Football.

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1830947366624428502

Mike Garafolo of NFL Network also reported Williams’ agent texted him that there are “still a few things to work through but close enough to report today,” so the deal is going to get done. Terms of the deal have not yet been reported, however.

Dianna Russini of The Athletic added that the two sides have “agreed to a contract extension” and “his holdout is over.”

This contract ends the holdout that kept Williams out of training camp and the preseason. Williams, 36, had no guaranteed money left on the six-year, $138.06 million deal he signed during the 2021 offseason.

His new deal presumably guarantees money for the four-time All-Pro as he enters the twilight of his Hall-of-Fame career.

Even as he enters his 14th NFL season, Williams is still playing at a high level. He’s been a First-Team All-Pro in each of the last three years, while earning overall grades of 89.9 or above in each of the last four seasons from Pro Football Focus.

There will be a roster move that corresponds with Williams’ return. He was on the reserve/did-not-report list so he did not count against the 49ers’ roster. To move him to the active roster, San Francisco will have to cut a player since they’re already at the 53-player maximum.

It remains to be seen if Williams will play against the Jets, but Jaylon Moore will start at left tackle if the All-Pro isn’t ready by Monday.

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49ers practice squad moves may hint at good news for star offensive tackle

The 49ers made practice squad moves that come with some added intrigue given their high-profile holdout.

The San Francisco 49ers on Monday did some shuffling on their practice squad.

According to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco, the 49ers officially signed defensive end Sam Okuayinonu to their practice squad. In a corresponding move they released offensive tackle Sebastian Gutierrez.

The potential Okuayinonu addition was first reported by the Athletic’s Matt Barrows shortly after San Francisco released Okuayinonu from their initial 53-man roster. It’s not a huge surprise they wanted him back given their lack of depth at defensive end – a position of major importance on that side of the ball.

He joins Alex Barrett and Jonathan Garvin as internal depth options at the DE spot. San Francisco may rely on someone from that group in Week 1 if Yetur Gross-Matos’s knee injury pushes him out of action.

While the DE position is important, Gutierrez’s release is perhaps the more notable of the two moves because it may signal confidence that Trent Williams’s holdout will end before the season opener.

The 49ers have Jaylon Moore and Colton McKivitz on their 53-man roster, but no additional offensive tackle depth. Internally they had Gutierrez and Isaac Alarcon on the practice squad, but now Alarcon is the only offensive tackle depth they have and he’s an international pathway player who has yet to make his NFL debut.

It’s hard to imagine the 49ers will want to go into a season opener with no depth at OT. Perhaps they envision elevating Alarcon from the practice squad. International pathway players can be elevated up to three times per season. However, given where we are on the calendar and the team’s ongoing negotiations with Williams, the Gutierrez release could signal that the 49ers are getting their star OT back and bolstering their depth as a result.

San Francisco has a bonus practice on Tuesday before getting to work with their normal practice schedule Thursday.

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49ers’ initial 53-man roster may not include major offensive piece

Don’t be shocked if there’s a superstar missing from the 49ers’ initial 53-man roster.

The San Francisco 49ers have until 1:00pm Pacific Time on Tuesday to trim their roster from 90 players down to 53.

There’s a strong chance one major piece of their offense isn’t included in that initial 53-man roster.

As of Monday evening, left tackle Trent Williams had yet to report to the team facility in Santa Clara. His holdout over a new contract lasted throughout training camp, and his failure to report landed him on the reserve/did not report list. Because he’s on a reserve list he’s not on the 90-man roster, and therefore wouldn’t be part of the team’s cuts.

If Williams and the 49ers don’t agree to a contract by the 1:00pm deadline Tuesday, he’d remain on the reserve/did not report list and the team would have a 53-man roster without Williams on it.

While it is jarring to consider the 49ers without Williams shielding quarterback Brock Purdy’s blind side, there’s still a chance their roster will include the four-time All-Pro by Week 1.

Since he’s not on any injured list, there won’t be a requisite number of weeks for Williams to miss before he can return. As soon as he’s happy with his contract situation he can report and suit up for the 49ers. Whether he’ll have enough time to ramp up and play Week 1 remains to be seen, but he’d be eligible to play.

The 49ers are surely hoping to come to a resolution with their superstar left tackle sooner rather than later. It appears Jaylon Moore is in line to start at left tackle if Williams isn’t available for the opener. While Moore is an okay swing tackle, he’s a steep drop off from what Williams provides.

San Francisco opens its regular season on Monday, Sept. 9 against the New York Jets at Levi’s Stadium.

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What if Brandon Aiyuk, Trent Williams miss games due to contract issues?

So … what if Brandon Aiyuk and Trent Williams miss games?

The San Francisco 49ers have a problem brewing with two weeks to go until their regular season opener.

Their contract negotiations with left tackle Trent Williams and wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk have now continued all the way through the conclusion of training camp and the preseason. For the first time since Williams’ holdout and Aiyuk’s hold-in, the reality of potentially missing one or both for the regular season opener has started to settle in.

So what happens if one or both players are not in uniform for the 49ers’ Week 1 showdown with the New York Jets on Monday Night Football?

From a football perspective there’s disaster potential. Williams was injured early in Week 6 last year, then missed Weeks 7 and 8. The 49ers lost all three of those games and averaged only 17 points while their run game sputtered.

It would be easier to replace Aiyuk for a week or two, but their passing attack looks much less dynamic without him lining up across from Deebo Samuel.

Contractually, both players would stand to lose significant money by missing regular season contests. Williams has already accrued fines of $50,000 per day for missing training camp. Those fines can’t be waived. Aiyuk avoided his $40,000 daily fines by reporting to camp.

Once players start missing regular season games is when the fines really start stacking up. At that point they start missing out on game checks, which amount to 1/18th of their base salary. For Williams that would mean missing out on more than $1 million per game thanks to a $20,050,000 base salary. Aiyuk would be missing out on a little less than $1 million per game with a $14,124,000 base salary.

Those fines and missed game checks may be enough to push Aiyuk and Williams back onto the field. However, they could dig in for even longer if they’re okay with the financial hits.

Players must be on the 53-man roster (or on IR) for a minimum of six games to accrue a full season. For Aiyuk this matters a lot. He could conceivably continue holding in until Week 13, which would allow him to accrue a full season to hit free agency next year. If he doesn’t accrue a full season he enters next offseason in the same place he’s in now.

Full season accrual matters less for Williams, who is under contract through the 2026 season and currently seeking a new deal that would put guaranteed money on his deal.

The good news for the 49ers is things don’t appear to be trending toward players missing regular-season games. Head coach Kyle Shanahan has been in contact with Williams, and Aiyuk traveled with the team to their preseason finale in Las Vegas. It may not be easy hammering out their contract negotiations, but things seem amicable enough that the two sides will figure something out by the time Week 1 rolls around.

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Can Trey Lance trade inform when Brandon Aiyuk, Trent Williams contract talks end?

The Trey Lance trade provides a good blueprint for when the Brandon Aiyuk and Trent Williams contract situations can be resolved.

The San Francisco 49ers are familiar with looming unsettled offseason moves this late in the preseason.

Last year as the final preseason game approached, the 49ers had defensive end Nick Bosa’s contract still unfinished and a mess to clean up in their quarterback room as the battle for the backup job waged between Trey Lance and Sam Darnold.

This year it’s wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s hold-in and left tackle Trent Williams’ holdout that still need to be resolved.

Bosa’s holdout went beyond the preseason. He didn’t return to the field until practice began the Wednesday before Week 1 of the regular season. Perhaps that’ll be the case for one of either Williams or Aiyuk.

However, the 49ers may not want to let anything linger that long again. They don’t have the wiggle room to have two of their top offensive players behind the curve when they take the field Week 1 against the New York Jets. It’s hard to imagine both Aiyuk and Williams playing at a high level with only three days of practice under their belts.

Instead, we’ll look at the Lance situation which ended with the QB getting traded to the Dallas Cowboys on August 25 — the same day of their preseason finale against the Los Angeles Chargers. Getting that in before final cuts helped the 49ers’ decision-making when it came to whittling down their roster. There’s no such choice with Aiyuk and Williams, but their presence would change the calculus on how the rest of their position groups get filled out.

This year the 49ers wrap up their preseason slate against the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday, Aug. 23. That may be, and perhaps should be, when the Aiyuk and Williams situations ultimately get resolved.

A nice Friday news dump just ahead of their preseason finale would help offset some of the bad vibes lingering by the prolonged contract talks of the two All-Pros. That would also give Aiyuk and Williams nearly two weeks to ramp up with bonus practices in the week before the regular season, and then a full week of regular-season practices before getting suited up for the opener on Sept. 9.

That still may not be enough time to get both players playing at the highest level after missing all of the offseason program and training camp, but it should give them enough of a foundation to at least be serviceable when the regular-season begins.

Training camp was the original soft deadline and nothing happened then. Now we’re going to circle the final preseason game as another soft deadline since final cuts take place a few days later on Aug. 27. If there’s no resolution by then, things really step into the realm of outcomes where the Williams and Aiyuk contract talks could have a real impact on the regular season.

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Trent Williams’ contract structure reveals manageable deal

The 49ers didn’t get Trent Williams for cheap, but his contract structure shows it’s not as expensive as the initial price tag.

Contract details for Trent Williams’ monster six-year, $138 million deal emerged Thursday morning via Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. The structure of the contract reveals the exorbitant $138 million price tag doesn’t match up with what San Francisco will actually pay over the life of the deal.

As Breer laid out, Williams will earn $30.1 million up front with his signing bonus. He’ll ultimately earn $40.5 million over the first two years, $60.75 million in the first three, and $81.65 million through four.

With that structure, the 49ers are actually shelling out about $20 million annually through the first four years, which is closer to the range many expected the deal to land. Plus, his salary cap hit this year will be a very reasonable $8,226,250 according to Over the Cap.

While the deal never necessarily becomes cheap, its becomes far more manageable after that fourth year. San Francisco can part ways with their left tackle for just $6.02 million in dead cap in 2025, with $23.35 million in savings.

The sticker shock of Williams’ contract made it seem like the 49ers were going to handicap themselves financially for the foreseeable future. However, with the salary cap expected to get a massive hike in the coming years, Williams’ deal will continue to look relatively team friendly throughout his tenure in San Francisco, especially if he keeps playing like one of the best blind side protectors in the NFL.