After the San Francisco 49ers signed Nick Bosa to a record-breaking five-year, $170 million contract extension, they have done what many would have considered unthinkable. The 49ers lead the NFL in cap space.
Despite having multiple players who are the top-three highest paid at their position, including Nick Bosa, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, and Fred Warner, the 49ers have a NFL-leading $41.2 million in cap space. What's even crazier about this number is it's $7 million more than the second team in the NFL, the Cleveland Browns, who have $34 million in space.
They have been able to achieve this feat for a few reasons. For one, the 49ers have quarterback Brock Purdy on a rookie contract. Due to Purdy being such a late-round draft pick, he makes less than $1 million per year, which is nothing in the quarterback market.
Additionally, John Lynch and the 49ers have taken the approach of restructuring the contracts of their stars to make room for others. The 49ers have recently restructured the deals of Trent Williams, George Kittle, and Arik Armstead, per Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area.
“Really, we always look at the cap for three years out,” John Lynch told Maiocco. “Obviously, we have all that room this year. But really it’s to create room for future years because we roll everything over. It helps us in future years because it creates some room we’re going to need.”
The 49ers' ability to give top contracts their star players and still have money to sign others has been a key reason they have been able to maintain their roster and status as Super Bowl contenders for the past four years.
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