The San Francisco 49ers have done a good job of managing the salary cap over the years since head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch arrived. But taking a team that was in the NFL doldrums and turning it into a perennial contender is not cheap, and the Niners' brass has paid out a bunch of long-term extensions and free-agent contracts over the years.
Consequently, they have several players who sit among the highest paid at their respective positions in terms of Average Annual Value (AAV), including running back Christian McCaffrey (first), fullback Kyle Juszczyk (first), wide receivers Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel (fifth and 14th), tight end George Kittle (third), left tackle Trent Williams (first), defensive end Nick Bosa (first), and linebacker Fred Warner (second), all according to Over The Cap.
That's a lot of firsts.
Ultimately, that means decisions have to be made each offseason to figure out how to balance the salary cap into the future without hamstringing their ability to improve when they need to. With quarterback Brock Purdy poised to move from being the league's lowest-paid starter (both Josh Dobbs and Brandon Allen will make more than Purdy's $934,253 deal in 2024) to one of the highest, that balance is all the more vital.
Last offseason, the 49ers approached two players (Juszczyk and now-Jacksonville Jaguars defensive lineman Arik Armstead) and asked them to take pay cuts to stay in San Francisco. The fullback agreed, but Armstead chose to test free agency and signed a three-year, $43.5 million deal with Jacksonville, $28 million of which was guaranteed.
One name I didn't list as making top-10 money for his position is punter Mitch Wishnowsky, who is currently the 10th highest-paid at his position for 2025.
The 2019 fourth-round selection has been inconsistent in his tenure with San Francisco, with a net punt average of just over 40 yards per kick for his career, including a career-low 36.3 yards per punt in 2024. To be fair, some of that comes down to some truly awful punt coverage by his teammates, but the eye test suggests that Wishnowsky isn't living up to his Boomin' Onion nickname.
It's safe to say that Wishnowsky has not been the game-changing field-flipper the 49ers expected him to be, ala fellow Aussie Michael Dickson with the Seattle Seahawks, and so the former's likelihood of being in San Francisco in 2025 is quite low.
Cutting him with a post-June 1st designation in the upcoming offseason will only cost the 49ers $550,000 in 2025 and 2026, with cap savings of $2.5 and $2.525 million over those two seasons.
Those are not massive savings, but they can surely find someone to do the same job for less money over the next two years.
The 49ers offensive line has been much maligned, but in all honesty it hasn't been as bad as the average fan wants to admit. You don't boast a top-10 rushing offense behind an absolutely abhorent blocking unit.
However, Ben Baldwin of The Athletic, who posts a great deal about EPA, team tiers, and offensive line play, noted a major discrepancy for the Niners O-line:
The tackles grade out quite high (that's fifth in the league by this chart), potentially heavily influenced by Williams, but it's still in a good place. Even the guards, maybe powered by rookie Dominick Puni, are near the top half of the league.
But center? Well, center is a weak spot with Jake Brendel's score tied for the lowest in the NFL with the New York Giants, who are in the bottom third of the league as an overall unit.
Brendel will be 33 years old right around Week 1 of the 2025 season and wasn't a starter in the league until the 49ers randomly decided to make him one heading into 2022, handing him a four-year, $16.5 million contract in 2023.
But it seems like the time has come to consider an upgrade, and this offseason presents an opportunity for the 49ers to get out of the contract and move on.
This is a tough one, because a) the 49ers just signed defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos last offseason and b) he has missed most of the year with an injury but has looked a useful player when he's been on the field.
But the fact of the matter is his contract was essentially set up as a one-year deal, as his cap hit jumps from a reasonable-for-a-rotation-guy $3.2 million this season to a "wow, how much are they paying him?" $9.6 million in 2025.
Cutting Gross-Matos with a post-June 1st designation puts the Niners on the hook for $1.63 million in dead money over the next four years (roughly $6.6 million), but the move provides $11.3 million in cap savings (he has void years after 2025).
There's a chance the 49ers just work out an extension with Gross-Matos to lessen his 2025 cap hit and keep him around beyond next season (he turns 27 years old in February, so he's still young), but that all depends on whether they think he can be counted on to stay healthy (he's only played one full season in five years).
The following players might also not be 49ers for much longer (with dead money and cap savings):
All in all, the 49ers will have work to do in order to make Purdy's new contract work along with re-signing some of their own players who are due to hit free agency, such as linebacker Dre Greenlaw or safety Talanoa Hufanga.
But things could be much worse from a cap perspective (and they have been in the past for this franchise) as they look to extend their championship window.
