JULY 25: Making Williams’ no-show official, the 49ers placed their starting left tackle on the reserve/did not report list. For a second straight year, the 49ers have a confirmed holdout.
JULY 24: Trent Williams remains on a six-year contract that runs through 2026, but the acclaimed left tackle is no longer satisfied with the terms of that deal. Kyle Shanahan said Wednesday (via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport) the veteran blocker is holding out.
This news follows Brandon Aiyuk‘s hold-in decision. The 49ers could waive Aiyuk’s fines — as they did for Nick Bosa last year — because he is on a rookie contract, but Williams must be fined daily for skipping camp. The 15th-year tackle has done well for himself since entering the league — on a CBA that was friendlier to first-round picks — in 2010, so accruing camp fines does not figure to derail Williams here.
[RELATED: Brandon Aiyuk Begins Hold-In Effort]
Williams signed a six-year, $138.1MM deal to stay in San Francisco during the 2021 free agency period, maximizing his leverage by hitting the market. The contract has slid to fourth among tackles, and the Vikings’ Tuesday deal with Christian Darrisaw — when the details emerge — may drop the All-Pro 49ers tackle to fifth at his position. Penei Sewell, Laremy Tunsil and Andrew Thomas are each tied to higher AAVs than Williams, who does not have any guarantees remaining on his deal.
Williams provides tremendous value for the 49ers, having almost definitely secured a Hall of Fame route during his time in the Bay Area. He will attempt to exert more leverage to secure some better terms.
This is, however, a rather interesting holdout due to Williams’ age. He turned 36 last week and has been linked to retirement. The former Washington draftee said late last season he would play at least one more year, but he is not a candidate for a massive extension — especially with three years left on his current deal. The Oklahoma product did say a bit earlier last year he wanted to play until age 40, however. That longevity aim may well have come up during offseason talks.
A straight raise would stand to appeal to Williams due to his age, as the 49ers giving him another extension that runs beyond 2026 may not be especially relevant here. The four-time All-Pro is due $20.1MM in base salary this season. While that money is not guaranteed, Williams is in no danger of being released or traded before Week 1. As a vested veteran, his salary will lock in just before the start of the season.
Re-emerging after a dispute with Washington preceded a full-season absence in 2019, Williams established a new career peak in San Francisco. He has been the first-team left tackle on the past three All-Pro squads; that came after his Washington tenure did not include any first-team All-Pro nods. The 49ers lost both the games Williams missed last season, with he and Deebo Samuel‘s absences serving as central reasons for the eventual NFC champions’ midseason swoon.
A panel of anonymous NFL evaluators ranked Williams as the NFL’s top tackle recently, via ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler, and Pro Football Focus slotted Williams as the game’s best left tackle last season. PFF ranked Williams first among all tackles in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Williams’ leverage also comes from the 49ers featuring an O-line with no one else remotely near Williams’ talent level, with the team keeping costs low around its LT anchor.
The Chiefs pursued Williams in free agency three years ago, helping to drive up the 49ers’ price. Still, Williams signing a six-year contract — one that drove the AAV to a then-OL-record $23.01MM — gave the team considerable control here. Three- and four-year deals have become the NFL norm for non-quarterbacks, allowing opportunities to cash in not long after. As one of the top wage earners in NFL history ($171MM — eighth all time), Williams did well to secure a homestretch contract. But his performance has exceeded expectations since.
The Raiders rewarded Maxx Crosby by moving money from future years to 2024; the 49ers would stand to have that option with Williams. He will incur fines north of $40K per day by skipping camp. Of course, Williams’ past earnings would give him some solid ground on which to stand — depending on how far he plans to go to prove his point.
Having the best or one of the best players at a whole bunch of different positions is awfully hard to maintain. Williams is the hardest one to replace and the one they can least afford to lose. The best left tackle in the league, the lynchpin of their line, and a credible threat to retire.
49’ers look fairly pitiful, in ‘25, per over the cap.
Not sure where the monies to pay some of these guys comes from unless they dump some big ticket positions, like LT, for rookie options.
People don’t look into the rollover from this year’s cap and how the contracts are worked every year. if Williams is unhappy and the 49ers say too bad to sad and he retires, he will actually be doing them a favor cap wise. They will save 21 million this year and 15 million next year. Yes, losing him would not be a good thing on the field but he would be helping them with the cap situation.
At 36 years old and the fact the 49ers already made him the highest paid at one time, let him retire or trade him. You have to cross that bridge at some point and you might as well do it now and help pay Aiyuk and Purdy.
Some chunk of that won’t be too hard. Cutting Maliek Collins will save $10 million. A post June 1st cut would save about $8 million on either Floyd or Gross-Matos. But yeah, it’s going to be tricky, especially with new contracts for Purdy and Ward looming. Seems likely they move on from Samuel. Eventually they’ll have to prepare for life without Trent Williams, but those are incredibly big shoes to fill.
Wonder of 25 draft LT prospects and veterans that’ll be moving.
I’m not solid on the Chargers Slater/Alt current setup staying as such. Could see Alt moving to LT and Slater as ‘trade’ with Salyer being tabbed to RT. Not that I’d do that as GM but ‘new’ admin hasn’t sold me on the future.
I think Harbaugh wants the team to be built with an elite tackle tandem. There should be at least a couple of high end LT prospects in the draft in Kelvin Banks and Will Campbell, but you certainly can’t count on a great tackle prospect falling as far in the draft as the Niners will most likely be.
He should do a hold-in and stand next to Aiyuk so Brandon doesn’t have to look foolish showing up to practice not to practice alone.
Wonder if the NFLPA would support ‘hold ins’ bringing lawn chairs, umbrellas and delivery pizzas for these practice observer’s?
Hold in you still get to access the information in meetings and around d the practice. Just not taking the damage.
Hehehe
he’s definitely the best LT in the league. but he is the one that signed the contract getting paid in the top 5 in his position is still awesome. don’t understand how 20 million isn’t enough
Not to mention he has already been given a signing and restructure bonus that adds to it making it over 30 million for the season.
You realize the league is over 1500 and we only have like 10-15 guys really being talked about regarding extensions…hardly a problem.
The Commanders allowed 65 sacks last season…perhaps they would be interested in giving Trent a raise 🙂
The dude has indicated his desire to retire and is just looking for the team to add more guaranteed money. No one needs that (except the Niners)
Going to be 6th highest pretty soon since Wirfs extension will be coming. He excelled at both tackle spots.
This holdout stuff is becoming garbage. Why don’t players sign 1 year deals to be the highest paid and then get a bigger deal every offseason? Don’t sign a contract for so long if your gonna pout halfway through it.
Teams want long-term deals so that they can spread out the signing bonuses and they aren’t as surprised as fans are when players want new deals when the guaranteed salaries run out. The Niners did exactly this for McCaffrey this offseason.
That’s exactly why Trent wants his guaranteed
As he should If CMC got his
Fans are funny they never say nothing when the team drops a player before the contract is done but the minute the player wants assurances fans cry for them to live up to what they sign
Every player already makes hundreds of thousands bare minimum and most make multimillions in 1 year. Normal people don’t get any guarantees and still work for way less. The extra wealthy crying poor is worse than ever.
People don’t pay to watch you work. People don’t bet on what you do at work. You are not a business of entertainment like pro athletes that is why us normal people don’t get what they get. If you are great at your job you still get perks over another that isn’t so good.
Regular people don’t have jobs that most likely only last a few years (if they’re successful), can end at any second, and most likely leave them with significant lifelong health problems. Most people also get some choice over what city they work in and don’t have to pay agent fees.
The CEO of the 49ers will soon be a billionaire despite never having taken a hit or having to work a job for anyone else. Meanwhile the players’ labor *is* the product. So I’ll generally root for them to make their money.
Some people do have all of those struggles. Career longevity, or rather lack thereof, may be most pronounced in sports leagues, but injury risk isn’t. Many people work in more hazardous jobs, and with worse medical relief, than football players. They don’t get this type of money. Also, this isn’t a mandatory duty required of these players. If they leave, all the world loses out on is entertainment. So, yes, there’s a lot of ill to be said of owners too, but we’re talking about players at the moment, not the owners. Some players get screwed, I agree absolutely, and some are greedy, and most are in between, just like most people.
In this case, this isn’t Williams’ first deal. This isn’t even his contract dispute (remember how he got to San Fran-and how excited he was to get this deal?). He’s not in bottom half or even bottom ten of players paid at his position-he’s fourth. Williams is on a team making a Super Bowl push that is in the middle of another contract dispute with Aiyuk and with another contract on the horizon in Purdy. This isn’t a guy on his rookie deal needing security for the next two years, or a player who signed a reserve contract and outplayed it when stepping into a full time role. Williams may be the best tackle in the league, but when we consider the list of players with contract gripes, he’s towards the bottom in terms of urgency.
The biggest difference and honestly, the only one that matters, is how many people can do whatever job it is they do? The fewer the number of people who can do a job at the highest level, the more it’s gonna cost for their services, right? Williams, per this article and league consensus, is the best at what he does and is in a position to set his value that high and the billionaire owners of the 49ers know it.
steelerbravenation • 16 hours ago
fans cry for them to live up to what they sign
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I’m not sure I see a problem with that. I pretty much expect that from my contractors around the house.
Players want the long term deal for security over numerous years. This is why you see Mahomes redo his deal ever so often. When the guaranteed money runs out, the team can release players without any or very minimal cap penalty.
In this case though, this is Trent Williams just being greedy.
Absolutely not his guarantees are done if they threw 2 more years guarantees at him I bet he would be the first one in practice
CMC got redone so what’s good for him is good for Big Trent
If the team didn’t want the deal, they would have traded or released him already. Plus at 36, how much more are you really going to get out of him. The 49ers need to call his bluff. You can’t make everybody happy. Sign a 26 year old WR or give more money to a 36 year old LT.
Come on Trent. You’ve already got 90 + mil in the bank. Knock it off. Let’s play some football.
Meh, they have him through some of his retirement years. I wouldn’t add a nickel to his contract. Let him retire if he wants. This is not like Aiyuk in his prime. That’s a bit of an issue.
They wouldn’t let him retire because their oline is a$$ without him.
He won’t walk, he’ll just sit out and claim his helmet doesn’t fit anymore until they cave…
Oh but it’s ok for the team to cut him & he has no guaranteed money left on the deal so they take a cap hit & he loses the rest of the money off that same contract you say he needs to live up to
Works both ways a player wants to hold out for the rest to be guaranteed he should cause the team would cut him as fast as they can if he isn’t producing
If you desire guarantees ensure they exist before you sign. What happens is teams plop a pile of up front ‘bonus’ and eye balls see the candy and cave.
Don’t miss seeing the forest because of the trees.
This isn’t about guarantees, The guy has a 20 million base salary and has already been paid 10 more million in bonuses for this season. This is just greed. If 30 million isn’t enough at age 36, retire and not get paid anymore. If he gets hurt during the season, he will go on IR and still get paid for the season.
Their hopes of winning hinge on him playing.
How much money is enough? How many millions are necessary to live the rest of your life – from 36 to whatever – and ensure your family (how many do you feel it necessary to support and for how long), is covered? How greedy is the appetite?
Not just for entertainer athletes but any entertainer. The higher salaries also equate to higher ‘fan’ costs as the ‘leech effect’ is never ending.
After a certain $# it appears ridiculous to ‘everyday people’.
Works both ways a player wants to hold out for the rest to be guaranteed
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If he wanted longer guarantees, he should’ve taken less upfront money and more longer term guarantees. It’s like an actor wanting $20M to do a movie, and then when the movie goes viral, they decide they want a percentage of the gross instead of the $20M.
You can’t have it both ways.
Skipped right to the bottom. Play your contract. Don’t be a fool TW. This is insane. Ship him back to Washington if he’s got a problem
That’s his leverage. It’s a 53 man roster and his money goes to someone else. Not nobody. He and BA gotta learn. Man does it look bad now giving McCaffrey a raise. Cause it seemed to piss off some ppl. Play out your contract. You need to be ego stroked twice? Then sign a 3 year deal.
Another year – another “Trent Williams is unhappy with his contract” story. If you Google that I’ll bet you find at least 5 different occurrences in the news archives.
This is just getting excessive. Every day another hold out.
It is only 4-5 guys…Trent, Aiyuk, Reddick, Lamb, not sure about Chase.
Guys like Higgins, Wirfs, Godwin, Dak, and 1500 other players showed up so no not every day. Hold outs create articles and news, no one cares to read or talk about guys showing up read your team fan pages for who is having a good camp.
Fine, every day another man unhappy about the deal he signed.
And yet somehow nobody complains when a team cut guys or ask them to take pay cuts for the deals that the team signed. Interesting why we want to complain about the millionaires trying too take money from the billionaires and not the other way around.
Ghost, when a team cuts a guy they are paid the guarantee they mutually agreed on…
If the player takes a cut that is on them.
Don’t be mad at the owners. Be mad at the NFLPA and players for not fighting to guaranteed money.
Tua and Love are holding in also
As a Seahawk fan I support his holding out.
Last place SEA Chickens. I support him holding my beer