49ers could still be players in free agency with updated cap space
The San Francisco 49ers went into the offseason with little wiggle room against the salary cap. After their bigger signings like Trent Williams and Kyle Juszczyk, and a couple of restructured deals for Weston Richburg and Dee Ford, the 49ers find themselves in a much better spot financially.
Over The Cap updated their salary cap figures to reflect the restructures and San Francisco’s recent free agency additions, and the 49ers still sit with around $20 million in cap space to work with – ninth-most in the league. Here’s the top 10:
1. Jaguars | $42,042,486
2. Colts | $40,868,614
3. Broncos | $37,262,619
4. Jets | $30,501,108
5. Panthers | $29,571,344
6. Chargers | $27,527,474
7. Bengals | $23,773,466
8. Washington | $20,894,955
9. 49ers | $20,181,509
10. Chiefs | $17,530,324
Ford’s restructure freed up around $11 million, per OTC. His cap hit in 2021 will be $8,909,997. The following year it’ll be $11,909,997, which indicates the 49ers are holding out hope he could return to something close to full strength.
This should put the 49ers in play to retain slot corner K’Waun Williams, who’s surprisingly still unsigned. He looked bound to join Robert Saleh with the New York Jets, but now it appears San Francisco could bring back a key cog to their secondary.
It also should give them room to re-sign a player like Kerry Hyder who led the club in sacks last year and hasn’t seen a robust market develop as an unrestricted free agent.
The 49ers’ big-money deals are likely done, but they have enough room to sign their draft picks and add at least one more impact player at a position of need, which would make life much easier for them moving into the NFL draft.
