There have been two major storylines of the San Francisco 49ers offseason this year: the free-agent departures of talented roster pieces, and the re-signing of star pieces.
First, who is gone? Over the past few seasons, the 49ers have seen a mass evacuation of impactful players. ESPN notes Chase Young, Arik Armstead, Dre Greenlaw, Charvarius Ward, Javon Hargrave and Deebo Samuel Sr. as examples of this major talent loss.
As replacements, San Francisco filled holes with players who didn't always bring in a comparable pedigree to the ones that left. This hurts the roster's overall depth, but helps the accounting department as the reinforcements often costed less on the cap.
This is all by design. San Francisco has been preparing for years to unload a massive contract on a quarterback.
That leads us to Brock Purdy and his contract signed this offseason worth $265 million over the next five years. The deal is the richest in 49ers franchise history and averages an annual salary of $53 million.
As excited as San Francisco is about locking down their QB for the future, this financial "plan" was meant to be in place for somebody else:
Trey Lance. The 49ers' failed No. 3 overall pick from 2021.
Lance was a highly-touted quarterback prospect who flashed all types of versatility and generated major excitement for the future upon his arrival.
San Francisco was forced to get out their planner because they were expecting Lance to turn into their franchise cornerstone, who would then command an enormous contract. With a deal of that potential magnitude, there needed to be a financial structure in place throughout the roster.
Then, that never happened.
Lance struggled mightily on the field as a rookie and dealt with a major ankle injury in Year 2. By then, San Fran had found their cornerstone in Purdy, who was taken with the very last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. He took hold of the reins after going 5-0 as a starter in his rookie season and commandeering a Super Bowl run the following season.
Although the Lance experiment didn't work out, the Purdy one did. Thankfully for the 49ers front office the timelines relatively match up. They were going to need to scrape up cap space around 2025/2026 if either of their quarterbacks panned out.
Now that Purdy is awarded the big bucks after leading the organization to two NFC championship games and a Super Bowl at just 25 years old.
If Lance were to follow his projected career arc, his contract would have lined up around the same time as Purdy's and can be comparable if you look at the franchise QBs from Lance's draft class.
Trevor Lawrence, the No. 1 overall pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in '21, has his next contract set at five-years, $275 million.
If it weren't for the exodus of high-dollar talent throughout the roster, the Niners may not have been able to afford their quarterback in this "plan" ... whether it was Lance or Purdy.
They were quick to alter the beneficiary to Purdy and are glad construction plan worked all the same.
Somehow, San Francisco has still given George Kittle the largest tight end contract (four-year, $76.4 million) and Dre Greenlaw (three-year, $31.5 million) the largest linebacker contract in the NFL. Not to mention left tackle Trent Williams (three-year, $82.6 million) being one of the highest-paid offensive linemen.
Regardless, San Francisco got it done. And it's all thanks to a financially-aware roster construction plan originally put in place to prepare for Trey Lance ... who now plays for the Los Angeles Chargers on a $2 million salary.
