NFL free agency, which begins on March 11, is quickly drawing to a close. That implies that in order to take advantage of that option, the San Francisco 49ers will need to clear some salary cap space as soon as feasible. The 49ers are currently $3.5 million over the cap. In order to free up a lot of room, they can’t actually cut many players, therefore they’ll need to restructure the contracts of at least a few players. By doing this, the 49ers will have the necessary cap space and a player’s salary cap number in 2024.
Restructures usually result in significant dead cap money, thus the 49ers will be stuck with that player for the foreseeable future. Therefore, the 49ers cannot arbitrarily rewrite the terms of any player’s contract. It must be someone they haven’t already performed it with and who they think will be important for the upcoming seasons.
Here are the three players that I envision the 49ers will seek to restructure their contracts.
JAVON HARGRAVE;
Now, Javon Hargrave isn’t necessarily a “pivotal” player for the 49ers. While he did have an impactful season, he is a bit of an underwhelming player. Still, the reason the 49ers will end up restructuring his deal is because he has a $33.3 million cap hit and with how thin and obscure the defensive tackle position is on the team. Javon Kinlaw and Kevin Givens, two key role players, are free agents. Arik Armstead is an aging player who’s body is clearly breaking down.
The 49ers need at least one player at the interior that they can pencil in for the next few years. Hargrave is that guy who is worth being locked into for that. He’s a solid player with little to no worry with injuries and hasn’t shown any signs of a drop off yet. I think he’s got a good couple years before he starts to fall off, so he is a good bet for the 49ers to restructure and be attached to for a while.
DEEBO SAMUEL;
Plenty of hypothetical trade scenarios have already been linked to Deebo Samuel, but the reality is that he isn’t getting traded. The 49ers will have to suffer $26 million of dead cap just to move him, so it makes zero sense to do so. Samuel can only be traded after the 2024 season when his numbers are more flexible. However, I don’t think that chance will arrive as I believe the 49ers will want to restructure Samuel’s deal this offseason as he carries a $28.6 million cap hit. Kyle Shanahan loves Samuel. That alone is enough to want him on the 49ers for years to come. I don’t think it would be a good idea for them to do so because he is a player they should want to stomach this year and then move off of next year. But the relationship with him is too strong, and he does impact the offense fairly heavily despite not being a significant producer.
KYLE JUSZCZYK;
There are no more guarantees on the remaining two years of Kyle Juszczyk’s deal, so the 49ers could cut him and save a decent amount of cap space. But I doubt the 49ers want to be without him anytime soon. In fact, I could see the 49ers offering him an extension for an extra year or two that is also part of a restructure. That way they can lower his $7.5 million cap hit to something more manageable and lock him in for the foreseeable future.
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