Due to an agreement reached last summer, the 49ers were not permitted to retain Trent Williams via the franchise tag. They have five days left to negotiate exclusively with the Pro Bowl left tackle, whom they acquired via trade last year.
San Francisco has more than $23MM in cap space — the 12th-most as of Wednesday night, though teams will continue to create funds ahead of the March 17 start to the new league year — and Williams launched a successful reboot to his career with the team last season. Williams and Kyle Shanahan also have a history going back to the latter’s OC days in Washington, and the eight-time Pro Bowler may not want to play for a third team.
During an appearance on the Cris Collinsworth Podcast, Richard Sherman predicted Williams would stay with the 49ers and indicated he would play several more seasons. Also on the podcast, Williams replied (via NFL.com), “That’s not a bad take, fellas. Y’all barking up the right tree.”
Although Williams will turn 33 this offseason, he will command a high-end left tackle salary. Considering Williams has never hit free agency before, it would not be surprising to see him hold off on a 49ers extension and let them vie for his services against other teams in free agency.
With Laremy Tunsil and David Bakhtiari raising the tackle market to beyond the $22MM-per-year point, Williams’ next deal may not come in too far below those younger blockers’. That will put the 49ers to a decision. They traded third- and fifth-round picks to acquire Williams last year and saw the deal work out quite well, even though their season did not go smoothly. After sitting out the 2019 season, Williams graded as Pro Football Focus’ No. 1 overall tackle in 2020.
Williams exiting the Bay Area would create a major need for a 49ers team that had avoided such issues for much of this century. Joe Staley held down San Francisco’s left tackle job from 2007-19, and on the same day his retirement decision surfaced, the 49ers traded for Williams. The 49ers would check off a key item from their offseason to-do list by retaining him.
Lotta people talked so much trash about him when he was getting away from that dumpster fire in DC. They’ll never eat their crow but that’s ok you know who you are. Turns out he was 100000% correct in forcing the trade. Too bad he went to another crappy team but at least he’s away from Snyder’s garbage dump.
Another pro bowl year and the #1 tackle in the game. Go get paid again Trent, you deserve it.
Go for it. Sign the man to a big guaranteed contract, with signing bonuses and watch his productivity drop off a cliff. Significant injury risk here. If the contract were primarily incentive driven and actual play driven (injury time misses game bonuses), this might work out better.
In a year with a much lowered cap, there’s little space for $20 million single players.
Since his rookie season, Williams’ lowest PFF season grade has been 75.6. In 2015, after signing his five-year extension, his PFF grade was 82.9, higher than his 2014 grade. His 2016 grade was 92.7, the highest of his career.
You may be right about the significant injury risk, but you have no evidence outside of your own cynicism that Williams’ play, as opposed to other players, is driven by incentives.
And, d’uh, any multi-year deal he signed would include a low 2021 cap hit – likely no more than half of your $20 million – that then ballooned next year.
Another crappy team? That team went o the super bowl and barely lost. Would’ve easily made the playoffs if 2/3 of the team wasnt hurt and even with all the injuries they still won 6 games. Blows my mind people say the 49ers aren’t good and clearly shows they have no clue what they are talking about besides looking at a record.
They only had $78 million on the IR when the season ended. Not to mention the starting offense was only on the field together for 5 out of 64 possible quarters in the regular season. Any team can overcome that, right?
So he’s take up the rest of their cap? Their saying he should get roughly 20 mill a year and they have 23 in cap space…so I guess it’s the right move unless they feel like they need to improve on the rest of their roster
Nooooo bud, just because he might end up getting roughly 20mil a year on average, that does not mean he would take up all their cap..
Paraag is awesome at structuring deals, so I’m sure he could work in a big bonus, and then probably backload the deal starting the 2022 season when the cap will go back and increase. This way the 49ers should be able to resign Williams no problem, and then still address their secondary, center, and make some depth moves as well…
You can spread it out with the signing bonus and guaranteed money. Dak is getting paid $75m this year by Dallas, but only a $22m cap hit this year.
A good player when he is healthy, but Williams has a long history of missing games due to his chronic knee problems. Playing only 75% of your teams’ games means they need to pay someone else to play the other 25% – thus this should be considered in any offer he gets.
Williams’ advancing age should also be considered, so any deal should put the majority of the money in incentives.
A portion of the money in incentives, sure. He’s had $250,000 in per game bonuses in his contract since 2015. But a majority in incentives is simply not realistic, especially for a player at that position of his caliber.