The 49ers have a good chunk of cap space, but here is how they can create more to become big players in free agency.
Coming off a disappointing and injury-plagued 2024 season, the San Francisco 49ers have already been aggressive in reshaping their roster for 2025. Beyond veteran additions and subtractions, the front office is also in the midst of trying to negotiate an extension for quarterback Brock Purdy, which could end up being quite contentious and drag on longer than initially expected.
After the trade of Deebo Samuel, which cost the 49ers $15 million in cap space due to dead money, San Francisco is currently sitting at $28.71 million in effective salary cap space. That ranks 20th in the league. The team isn’t in dire financial straits but could be looking to make even more room in order to accommodate additional moves in free agency. There’s also the matter of trying to squeeze in Purdy’s extension, which may or may not happen this offseason.
In this article, we’ll take a look at potential restructure and extension candidates for the 49ers that would increase available cap space. San Francisco actually has a good number of contracts that can be adjusted or extended, giving them a lot of flexibility heading into the 2025 league year.
For those who aren’t aware of how these moves work, teams use restructures and extensions to create cap space by reducing a player’s base salary and converting it to a signing bonus. The reason this creates space is because base salary counts 100% towards the salary cap, while the signing bonus is prorated (spread out) over the length of the contract up to five years.
Contract moves the 49ers could make to free up big cap space
Fred Warner
Restructure savings: Up to $12.37 million
Extension savings: Up to $13.2 million
The first place the 49ers should look to create space is with star linebacker Fred Warner. Warner is heading into his age-29 season with two years left on his deal, giving the team the choice of restructuring or extending his deal. Warner’s contract already has two void years added, further spreading out the impact of a restructure.
Given how critical Warner is to San Francisco’s defense and his consistently high level of play, a two-year extension may be the preferred route to keep Warner under contract through age 32. Still, no matter what the team decides to do, the potential savings for 2025 is massive.
George Kittle
Restructure savings: Up to $9.93 million
Extension savings: Up to $10.6 million
The next place to find significant cap savings is in the contract of tight end George Kittle. Kittle’s situation is a little more complicated due to numerous factors. He’s in the final year of his contract and will be entering his age-32 season. Despite his age, Kittle hasn’t slowed down at all and turned in one of his best NFL seasons in 2024.
Kittle’s contract already features three void years to spread out his prorated bonus money. That’s why a restructure is even possible despite this being the final year of the “real” contract.
Going that route could create up to $9.93 million but would escalate the dead cap in 2026 into $20+ million territory if he’s not extended before the end of the league year. Instead, the 49ers are much more likely to pursue a Kittle extension. Given the longevity of the position and Kittle’s recent play, a two or three-year deal might make sense and could free up a bit more space while keeping Kittle on the roster through the end of his career.
Contract moves the 49ers could make to free up some cap space
Leonard Floyd
Restructure savings: Up to $5.02 million
Extension savings: Up to $5.36 million
Post-June 1st cut savings: $7.95 million
Heading into the mid-range savings contracts, Leonard Floyd’s contract presents the most options for the 49ers. Right off the bat, San Francisco could opt to cut bait and designate Floyd as a post-June 1st cut to save $7.95 million in 2025. Only $1.48 million would become immediately available, but the remainder would more than cover the cost of signing the draft class in June.
Given Floyd’s production, the 49ers could also opt to keep him around and look to create savings through a restructure or extension. Much like the other players we’ve discussed, Floyd’s deal contains multiple void years. That means a restructure is on the table, and that’s the simplest way to push $5 million into the future. With Floyd entering his age-33 season, a decline is on the horizon and could complicate a potential extension, but there could be a bit more savings to be gained by going that route.
Yetur Gross-Matos
Restructure savings: Up to $4.74 million
Extension savings: Up to $5.06 million
Cut/Post-June 1st cut savings: $2.86 million/$7.82 million
Another option with moderate savings is the contract of Yetur Gross-Matos. Gross-Matos played a rotational role for the team and delivered solid production, but his cap hit in 2025 seems unreasonable for that level of play at $9.47 million. As a result, the most likely angle is that the 49ers simply move on to create a bit of easy savings. Gross-Matos could be a potential cut or post-June 1st cut.
If the team wants to keep him around longer, a restructure or extension could also create space. Gross-Matos is just 27 and clearly the team must’ve liked his long-term potential to give him this contract.
Some 49ers contract moves that would clear small amounts of cap space
Kyle Juszczyk
Colton McKivitz
Jake Brendel
There isn’t much to be gained by touching any of these three contracts (approximately $2 million in savings each, give or take), but these are additional options for San Francisco to squeeze a little more out of the roster. Given the ages of these three players, Colton McKivitz (29) would seem the most likely extension candidate, while Juszczyk and Brendel are potential restructures.
How much salary cap space could the 49ers create?
It’s unlikely that the 49ers would push all of these contracts to the max this offseason, but in a scenario where they did, San Francisco could theoretically create up to $45.6 million in additional cap space. That would be an extremely aggressive approach and probably not the wisest course of action, given that a large quarterback contract could be coming on the books very soon.
More likely than not, a more measured approach will be taken to managing the salary cap. I’d say a good estimate would be freeing up around $30 million in additional cap space. When combined with what the 49ers already have, the team could then be sitting at around $58.7 million — with a ceiling of around $74.28M if all the possible levers were pulled. That $58.7 million number would put the 49ers at fifth in effective cap space, while the $74.28 million “max” number would put them fourth.
That should theoretically be enough to absorb a (likely backloaded) Brock Purdy extension while also retaining and adding talent elsewhere on the roster. Given the 49ers’ propensity for adding void years, an aggressive approach could see the team stretch that money pretty far.
The 49ers can definitely be big players in the free agent market if they want.