Now, yesterday I talked about the 49ers 2021 salary cap room, but today let’s talk about the 4 players I mentioned in that article that have high enough base salaries to save cap room via a restructure, but why it’s not a good idea, and the ripple effect it’ll have on the 49ers salary cap.
Let’s start off with Jimmy Garoppolo, the projected starting quarterback for week 1, now if the 49ers were to redo his deal, add in 3 voidable years, they can save $18.42 million in salary cap room, but the issue become for 2022, when his cap savings goes from $25.6 million to just $7.18 million.
The 49ers could just redo the deal without voidable years, in which case they would save $11.54 million, but their cap savings for Garoppolo go from $25.6 million to $14.06 million.
The 49ers simply can’t, and shouldn’t touch Jimmy’s contract, they need the $25.6 million in savings, as the salary cap for 2022 will only, at this moment, be as high as $208.2 million, but it could come in much lower than that.
With the $25.6 million in savings, the 49ers would have around $28,170,512 in cap room, before factoring Warner’s extension, or the projected escalated base salaries for Deebo Samuel, Dre Greenlaw, & Mitch Wishnowsky, a total of $3,403,360 less in cap room, which would bring their cap room down to $24,767,152, but with a Warner extension, projecting a $5.5 million cap number, they’d have $19,972,152, when factoring in the top 51 rule.
That near $20 million will be needed to bring back whatever free agents the 49ers deem to be their priorities, and also to potentially go into free agency, and pick up a veteran or 2.
Next up is Laken Tomlinson, which the 49ers would save $2.808 million if they added 1 more voidable year, as he has 3 already from when the 49ers restructured his deal during the 2020 season.
If they weren’t to add that extra voidable year, the savings would be $2,547,500, but the ripple effect is the fact that Tomlinson’s deal voids after the 2021 season, thus he has a $1,005,530 dead money hit for 2022, so they’d either add $2.808 million, or $2,547,500 to that number, meaning less cap room.
Another option is extending Tomlinson, where they could give him a 4-year extension, which would save the team the $2.808 million, but eliminate the dead money, but he would still count with a new deal.
Let’s say Tomlinson signs a new 4-year extension, for 2022, his base salary is the minimum of $1.12 million, plus $400,000 per game roster bonus, & $100,000 workout bonus, along with $335,176 in prorated bonus from the 2020 restructure, plus the new $702,000 prorated bonus from the new extension, that would give Tomlinson a $2,657,176 cap number for 2022.
The 49ers only do this if they believe that Tomlinson is the teams left guard for the forceable future.
Next we have Arik Armstead, the 49ers don’t need to add any voidable years to his deal, as he has 5 years left, with 2025 being a void year, so the 49ers would save the $4.528 million in salary cap room.
The ripple effect is that this adds $1.132 million to his 2022-2024 cap numbers, but if it means the team has the cap room needed for 2021, I think this is a fine idea.
Lastly we have Jimmie Ward, if the 49ers add on 2 voidable year, as he already has one in 2023, the 49ers would save the maximum of $5.86 million, but it would make it very hard to cut Ward in 2022.
So the ripple effect is that Ward’s cap savings go from $7.5 million, to just $1.64 million, if this happened, the 49ers would need to be certain that Ward is their free safety for the foreseeable future.
Also the 49ers could redo his deal without adding in any voidable years, and they would save $4,883,333, but that would leave an extra $4,883,334 leftover for 2022 or 2023 should they release him.
If they did this, his cap savings goes from $7.5 million to $2,616,666.
In my opinion, the 49ers need to stay away from redoing Ward’s deal, because that additional $7.5 million, well actually $6.795 million when factoring in the top 51 rule, could go a long ways towards extending the likes of Deebo Samuel, Nick Bosa, & Dre Greenlaw.
Now to me, the 49ers have to stay away from redoing either Jimmy Garoppolo or Jimmie Ward’s contracts, the 49ers will just end up losing cap room for 2022.
As for who to redo, the number 1 obvious restructure to do is Armstead’s, as like I said, it only adds $1.132 million to his 2022-2024 cap numbers, very minimal.
I’m hesitant about Tomlinson, if they feel he’s the left guard, then do this extension that frees up $2.808 million.
If they did these 2 redoes, with 1 restructure, and 1 extension, the 49ers would have around $17,188,506 in cap room, and if they released Ward, they’d have $23,983,506.
Either way, if they redo Armstead and/or Tomlinson, or don’t redo anyone, the cap space for not redoing anyone $19,972,152, or for redoing both of these guys, $17,188,506, even without cutting Ward, would be enough money, in my opinion to retain their priority free agents, & even go into free agency for a guy or 2 like this offseason with Alex Mack, & Samson Ebukam.
I do have to say, the 2022 offseason is nowhere near as bad, or frustrating, or nerve racking as 2021 was, there is no Trent Williams, or Kyle Juszyzck type of player, I even went on record as saying that the 49ers could bring back most of their core players, and even add a free agent or 2, and they did.
So, either way, the likes of Jason Verrett, D.J. Jones, Daniel Brunskill, Kevin Givens, K’Waun Williams, Jaquiski Tartt, and other smaller players like Arden Key, Maurice Hurst Jr., Zach Kerr, Trent Sherfield, Ross Dwelley, & Marcell Harris can be retained.
So with all of this said, I thank everyone for reading article, as always you can follow me on Twitter @49erscap, or leave a comment below, and I’ll get back to you.
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