They 49ers paid George Kittle too much, but it won’t really matter

The 49ers have a secret weapon in their front office.

Despite reports of lagging negotiations, it was only a matter of time before the 49ers locked down George Kittle, arguably the NFL’s top tight end, to a long-term extension. The time came on Thursday morning, with Kittle agreeing to a five-year, $75 million deal with San Francisco.

If that sounds like a lot of money for a tight end, it’s because it is. Kittle didn’t just reset the tight end market. He blew it up. Before the deal was made, the league’s highest-paid tight end on a multi-year deal, Cleveland’s Austin Hooper, was bringing in just over $10 million per season. Kittle’s new deal averages $15 million a year.

Ordinarily, I might ask if the 49ers are paying too much money for a non-premium position. They are, after all, already spending too much on a quarterback who needs Kyle Shanahan’s scheme to hold his hand in order to play at a high level. And keeping together that defense is going to require a large chunk of the salary cap.

This is not going to be one of those posts, though.

Not necessarily because I think teams should be paying a premium for tight ends. I actually don’t think that’s a viable strategy for most teams. But the 49ers aren’t most teams. They have earned the benefit of the doubt.

General manager John Lynch is the face of the front office, but the most important person in the building might be salary cap wizard Paraag Marathe. His actual title is Executive Vice President of Football Operations but that isn’t nearly as fun. Look at any big contract the 49ers have handed out over the last decade and you’ll see the pattern: The initial reports always draw shock and awe when the numbers are revealed; but hours later, the full details are released and what looked like a win for the player is actually a team-friendly deal.

The extension Colin Kaepernick signed in 2014 might be the best example of this. The deal was first reported as a six-year, $126 million pact that included $61 million in guarantees, which was a record at the time. Everyone lost their minds, wondering if Kaepernick was worth the money. Then days later, we found out it was essentially a year-to-year deal that the 49ers could get out of whenever they wanted to. That’s exactly what they did a few years later.

Jimmy Garoppolo had a similar setup. Marathe was able to leverage the team’s cap space by front-loading Garoppolo’s contract with a $28 million roster bonus in Year 1. His prorated signing bonus, which is spread out over the course of the deal, was just $7 million. Signing bonuses are typically what prevent teams from cutting a player early into a contract. Even if the money is given to the player at the time of signing, for cap purposes, it’s broken up over five years. That’s not the case for roster bonuses, which only count against the cap the year they’re awarded.

We don’t know if the Kittle contract will be structured in a similar way, but it doesn’t really matter. I say this for two reasons:

1. Kittle is a phenomenal player who is especially valuable in the scheme that Kyle Shanahan runs thanks in large part to his blocking ability.

He’s also the league’s most productive receiver when adjusting for how many routes he runs.

2. Overpaying for good players only becomes a problem if you don’t have a competent front office capable of balancing the books. With Marathe around, I wouldn’t be worried about the 49ers losing control of their cap. As long as Lynch keeps bringing in good players, Marathe will figure out the financials.

There’s also this: Good players win games; cap space does not.

I suppose the 49ers could trade Kittle for draft picks and keep that space open, but they’d either have to find a replacement for him at tight end — and that player almost certainly will not be nearly as good — or use that draft capital and extra cap space on more valuable — and therefore more expensive — positions. For most teams, it would probably be smarter to invest those resources into wide receivers, but the 49ers offense is unique. I don’t know if it makes sense to view them through the same lens we view other offenses. If Shanahan thinks Kittle is important enough to his offense to shell out record-breaking money, then I have to take his word for it.