Not long after ending Brandon Aiyuk‘s hold-in with an extension, the 49ers have a resolution in place with Trent Williams. The All-Pro left tackle returned to San Francisco on Tuesday to finalize a new agreement, his agency announced.
A few minor details are still to be ironed out, as noted by Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, but once signed this new pact will finish the team’s last major piece of financial business for the offseason. Three years remained on Williams’ contract prior to today’s news, but no guaranteed compensation was in place. To no surprise, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reports that is now expected to change.
Indeed, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson adds Williams will receive $48MM at signing. Overall, this is a three-year, $82.66MM agreement, with the $48MM serving as a signing bonus. The 49ers will be able to spread that amount into the future, though this deal does not add any years to Williams’ deal, which still runs through 2026.
Among non-quarterbacks beyond age 35, the $48MM guarantee is an NFL-record sum. As a massive talent gap exists between Williams and the rest of San Francisco’s O-line cogs, the team certainly needed him back to open the season. Talks intensified Sunday night, per Fowler, and Williams will have a week of practices with his team to prepare for the 49ers’ opener against the Jets. Williams effectively maximized his leverage, with Wilson adding he will collect $27.65MM in 2024.
Williams was absent from the start of training camp, adding another layer to the financial challenges the 49ers dealt with over the summer. Trade talk persisted in Aiyuk’s case, with a trade agreement being worked out with the Steelers. That wound up being a moot point after the parties agreed to a four-year, $120MM contract which will keep Aiyuk in the Bay Area for the foreseeable future, though. The same will now be true for Williams, whose deal ran through 2026 before the adjustments which will be finalized today.
The 11-time Pro Bowler was due $20.9MM in 2024 under the terms of the previous contract, one which carried an AAV of just over $23MM. Williams’ efforts to land an upgraded pact had come during an offseason in which the top of the tackle market has reached new heights with Tristan Wirfs, Penei Sewell and Christian Darrisaw landing big-ticket extensions. Each of those agreements are for second contracts, though, making them notably different than Williams’ case.
The 36-year-old has previously been linked to retirement, although one year ago he made public his intention of playing until age 40. Williams has landed first-team All-Pro nod in each of the past three years, serving as the anchor of the 49ers’ offensive line during that span. That longevity helped give him leverage to angle for a new arrangement, but it will certainly be interesting to see if the 49ers have added any new years to the pact given Williams’ age.
In 2019, Williams sat out the entire campaign while attempting to land a new deal at the end of his tenure in Washington. That was eventually ended by the trade which sent him to San Francisco the following offseason (and, later, the six-year accord he had been playing on), but it illustrated how willing the Oklahoma product was to extend a holdout into the regular season. A chance of that tactic being repeated loomed throughout the summer, though a recent update pointed to the parties making progress on contract talks. Regardless of what the new deal looks like, today’s news means San Francisco’s offense will be at full strength in time for Week 1.
As a vested veteran, the daily fines Williams accumulated for his training camp holdout cannot be waived. Due to missed camp time ($2.05MM) and three missed preseason games ($3.34MM), Williams incurred $5.39MM in fines to secure this rework, CBS Sports’ Joel Corry tweets. With over $171MM in career earnings, that fact did not dissuade him, but the threat of a regular season absence is no longer in place.
