The San Francisco 49ers simply prolonged working again Christian McCaffrey, giving him the biggest contract in NFL historical past for his place. But all offseason, they’ve been tormented by rumors surrounding their large receiver contracts.
During the 2024 NFL Draft, there have been reviews that Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk might each be on the buying and selling block. For Samuel, it was to get his cap hit off the books and for Aiyuk, it was to keep away from paying him big cash on the prime of the receiver market this offseason.
The newest salvo within the public negotiating is a report out of the Bay Area that the 49ers offered Aiyuk $26 million per year, which might place him eighth in common annual wage amongst receivers. Aiyuk skipped the 49ers’ obligatory minicamp in early June.
If you take a look at the present wage cap rankings, the 49ers have loads of cap area to spend (nearly $32 million, per Spotrac) and increasing Aiyuk would probably decrease his 2024 cap hit, as cash is pushed into future years. But wanting into the longer term, it’s fairly clear the 49ers are wanting over the sting of a cliff and planning financially for 2025 and past of their negotiations with Aiyuk.
Any unused cap area from 2024 will roll over, however San Francisco presently has the third-highest wage cap commitments for 2025 with out Aiyuk on the roster. They even have a number of gamers on the prime of the market at different positions, with large jumps in cap hit able to kick in.
Five 49ers gamers are within the prime 5 2025 cap hits at their place in McCaffrey, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, tight finish George Kittle, left sort out Trent Willaims, and defensive sort out Javon Hargrave. In addition, Samuel is eighth amongst receivers and Nick Bosa’s $20.5 million cap hit is fifteenth amongst move rushers.
Charvarius Ward’s $12.2 million 2025 cap hit is fifteenth amongst cornerbacks, however he’s not even below contract for the season. That’s simply the lifeless cap hit from his void years. Same with Arik Armstead, who will rely almost $15 million in opposition to the cap in 2025 regardless of signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars this offseason.
The slumbering big is QB Brock Purdy, who’s famously taking part in at a excessive degree regardless of being the ultimate choose within the 2022 NFL Draft. Under the league’s collective bargaining settlement, Purdy isn’t eligible to signal a contract extension till after the 2024 season, his third within the execs. With Spotrac listing his market value at $46 million per season, will Purdy fortunately play out the ultimate 12 months of his deal making solely $1.1 million in 2025?
If Purdy does certainly argue for and even maintain out for a brand new contract in the course of the 2025 offseason, his ballooning cap hit will certainly push different gamers off the roster. (That’s on 49ers normal supervisor John Lynch, not Purdy, who deserves to be paid.)
And that leads us again to Aiyuk. With their present cap commitments, it’s extremely unlikely they may have the ability to apply the franchise tag for receivers in 2025, presently projected to be close to $25 million. With Samuel’s $24 million cap hit and Kittle’s $22 million, can you may have two receivers and a decent finish counting that a lot on the cap? The 49ers additionally chosen large receiver Ricky Pearsall within the first spherical of the 2024 NFL Draft in an try to organize for the transition, so it appears a breakup is looming.
Other groups across the league have begun to maneuver on from extremely paid receivers in an try to preserve their Super Bowl home windows open wider. The Kansas City Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill whereas the Buffalo Bills traded Stefon Diggs.
A portion of the 49ers fan base has come to terms with 2024 being the last dance for this group, however the majority assume the Super Bowl window will final past the 2024 season. It’s most likely a either side reply right here, as San Francisco will little doubt be aggressive for the foreseeable future however with some completely different names combined in. Which present gamers might be on the skin wanting in?
In 2025, Williams goes to be 37 when the season begins and Kittle will flip 32 in October.
It gained’t get any simpler in 2026, when Bosa’s hit jumps from $20.5 million in 2025 to $42 million. Williams’ hit is close to $38 million whereas Hargrave and Warner are each over $26.5 million. Kittle’s contract expires after the 2025 season, however he’ll rely $13 million on the 2026 cap anyway. Two veteran 49ers receivers, Deebo Samuel and Jauan Jennings, additionally don’t have contracts for 2026, however every have lifeless cap hits north of $8.3 million to associate with important lifeless cap commitments for Leonard Floyd and Yetur Gross-Matos.
If I’m making an informed guess, we are going to see an Aiyuk extension a while earlier than coaching camp opens in California, however we can even see them transfer on from a number of of the names we listed subsequent offseason as they attempt to reload round Purdy.
