With the San Francisco 49ers season now over, the focus becomes how the team can improve for 2022. Over the coming days and weeks there will be plenty of discussion about the big names who should be signed in free agency and which positions should be targeted in the draft.
The 49ers are currently $4.5 million over the 2022 salary cap which is expected to be set at $208.2 million according to overthecap.com. Their top 51 contracts must be under the salary cap total by the start of the new league year on March 16. San Francisco currently has only 44 players signed to contracts for next season with 11 of those being signed last week to reserve/future contracts.
A trade of Jimmy Garoppolo is on the horizon which will help get under the cap. Trading Garoppolo would provide San Francisco with about $21 million in cap space. The 49ers will also need to budget approximately $7.7 million of that space to sign their nine picks in this year’s draft, leaving them with $13.3 million to round out their roster.
To fill out and improve the roster, San Francisco will need to free up cap space. One of the ways teams do this is by working with players to restructure their contracts.
Here are five possible targets for contract restructures or extensions this offseason:
Arik Armstead: 2022 Cap Hit – $20,000,000
Armstead would seem to be a no brainer for a contract restructure. He has proven to be healthy, playing every game over the last four seasons which provides some basis for believing an extension would make sense.
Armstead’s current contract includes roughly $13 million in base salary for 2022 which can be converted towards a signing bonus which could be spread out over the remaining four years of his contract.
The net cap savings for 2022 would be just over $10 million.
Jimmie Ward: 2022 Cap Hit – $12,935,588
Ward has proven himself to be a difference maker in the middle of the 49ers secondary. Despite issues with injuries early in his career, Ward has missed only six games over the last three seasons.
San Francisco could convert up to $7.78 million of Ward’s $8.9 million in base pay to signing bonus.
The net cap savings for 2022 would be roughly $6.2 million.
Samson Ebukam: 2022 Cap Hit – $8,250,000
Ebukam joined the 49ers as a free agent in 2021, signing a two-year $12 million contract with a signing bonus of $3.5 million and $1.5 million in guaranteed salary for 2021.
San Francisco could save $6.5 million on the 2022 cap by releasing Ebukam, however his productivity would seem to make that an unlikely outcome.
Moving into the starting lineup after Dee Ford was lost for the season to injury, Ebukam recorded 6.5 sacks and 14 hits over the 49ers final 14 games of 2021, including the postseason.
Emmanuel Moseley: 2022 Cap Hit – $6,555,529
Moseley signed a two-year contract in 2021 worth up to $9.384 million with $4.384 million guaranteed at signing. The 49ers could move on from Moseley this offseason and save roughly $4.8 million in cap space.
The primary concern with Moseley has been his ability to stay healthy. He missed four games due to injury in 2020 and six in 2021.
Level of play has never been a concern for Moseley. In 11 regular season games during 2021, Moseley help opponents to only 31 receptions on 55 targets with one interception while not giving up a touchdown.
Mike McGlinchey: 2022 Cap Hit – $10,880,000
San Francisco chose to pick up the fifth-year option on McGlinchey last offseason, meaning his $10.88 million salary for 2022 is fully guaranteed.
McGlinchey suffered a season ending injury during the 49ers 31-17 loss to Arizona in week 9. Prior to the injury, McGlinchey had been playing some of the best football of his career with the 49ers.
Any extension would require him to first show he is fully recovered and back to playing at his pre-injury level.
I’ve heard on some 49er podcasts that McGlinchey’s injury could be career ending. If he ends up being forced to retire, does that change anything about the $10.8M cap hit?
Depending on the nature of the injury it could be career ending, and yes if he retired it would make a difference.
The problem is he, like Ford can just rehab and be owed that money.
While some speculate Ford will retire, financially it makes no sense for him to do so. Even if he knows he can’t play, if he just continues to rehab he gets to collect all that guaranteed money, nearly 15 million. Knowing his career is over, why wouldn’t he just ride it out and set his family up for a few more generations?
In the same vein I expect Mike to try at least for a year… as 10 Million is too much to say no too IMO.
Interesting. If it were me I would rehab until the bitter end to get every cent I could out of my contract. Sacrificing your body for football should come with some kind of reward. Im in favor of all contracts becoming fully guaranteed if a player is injured and those payments should not count against the salary cap. Understand there could be all kinds of cheating but guys like Dee Ford and Mike McGlinchey deserve all the money they can get from their team.
Is there really a chance, as now is being reported, that Tom Brady might unretire
and come to the 49ers in exchange for Garoppola going to the Bucs? Hyperbole?
Not?
Nice article Jack.
The first two are no brainers IMO.
Also, I am one of those that postulated Samson could be cut. Having said that, given they way he closed out the season, I think an extension is more likely now. Cutting him at his point really only makes sense if they are planning on going after an Edge with their first pick and they want to use the saving to retain someone like Jones IMO.
Good choice of topic and a very good write-up.
I’d guess that the extent of restructuring this off-season would depend on how conversations proceed with Bosa’s agent at Indy for an extension either this off-season or next.
Giving Ward a 1 or 2 year extension would probably make more sense than just another restructure. They already will be carrying quite a lot of dead cap next year when his contract voids.
I’ll be interested to see what they do with Ebukam. He came on pretty nicely towards the end of the season. He could be another one they potentially try and extend, if he isn’t asking for a big contract.
I suspect with McGlinchey they will look to restructure only at first, convert salary to bonus and add some voidable years. And then if he plays well in 2022, extend him.
Good point on the voidable years for McGlinchey. Wasn’t thinking along those lines.