49ers' big offseason thing: How to approach the salary cap
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz looks at the one big thing for San Francisco's offseason - which is continuing to build a Super Bowl quality roster with ten players totaling more than $210 million against the 2024 salary cap.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: It's time to take a look at one big thing facing the San Francisco 49ers this off-season, and it might be the salary cap. Look, we all know the 49ers are a great roster. In fact, after the Super Bowl, how many of us echoed the same sentiment?
The best player beat the best team. Mahomes took down the 49ers. But this year, the 49ers have 10 players that are accounting for about $210 million. That means the 49ers better keep drafting well. That means the 49ers better be able to extend some contracts.
We're going to get into some funny money. They're going to have to find a way to balance all of this together, while deciding what they're going to do with some key free agents of their own. San Francisco doesn't have a lot of questions. We all know that.
And we could make Brock Purdy the question here, because that's the sexy thing to do. But I don't think the organization has any questions with Brock Purdy. I think that when Brock Purdy is eligible, he is not yet, he's going to get a massive extension for the 49ers. They're going to figure it out.
I think San Francisco has answered their questions internally that we still have about Brock Purdy externally. So with that being said, what is the real question? Whether or not to take the ball first in overtime? What you can do at the end of a key Super Bowl to try and get your team over the hump? I'm not sure there's an easy answer to that.
So when you look at the real questions the organization is going to have to answer over the course of the next few months, it's exactly how much do they value some of the people that right now contractually need to be valued very much. It's never easy to figure out how to maneuver the salary cap.
And we almost take for granted that John Lynch has been very good at it. But for a 49ers team that has smartly built through the draft by simply asking themselves how to be the best at every single position, they're in the position now that most teams like that are in, where you have to find a way to pay a lot of people a lot of money. How that will change the roster of the 49ers moving forward, how well they are able to backfill some of their needs, will become a key part of the answer that we'll need to figure out if San Francisco can again be a Super Bowl contender next year.
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