Now that Jimmy Garoppolo’s back with the 49ers in 2022, what does their salary cap look like?
Most of us thought that the 49ers would part ways with Jimmy Garoppolo this offseason because of his $26.9M salary cap hit and potential savings of $25.5M if released or traded.
The 49ers could have turned the team over to Trey Lance while clearing out a large chunk of cap space with one move, but instead, they chose to insulate the quarterback room in the event of injury (or poor play).
On Monday, San Francisco decided to restructure Jimmy Garoppolo’s contract and bring him back for the 2022 season and here are the details below:
- Base Salary: $6.5M (fully guaranteed)
- Per Game Roster Bonuses: $500k
- Play-Time Incentives: $8.45M (Not Likely To Be Earned)
- Salary Cap Hit: $8.94M
The 49ers will pay Garoppolo a base salary of $6.5M, which is fully guaranteed. It’s less than Trey Lance’s base salary this season, which Albert Breer mentioned was important for the team and Lance.
He keeps his per-game roster bonuses, which means he’ll receive 1/17th of $500k every time he’s on the active game-day roster.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler added that Garoppolo has play-time incentives, meaning every time he starts or wins a game as a starter, he’ll earn a certain amount of money.
Overall, his salary cap hit was reduced from $26.9M to $8.94M, saving the 49ers nearly $17M in cap space. After today’s moves, the 49ers have the fifth-most cap space in the NFL at $21.3M, per OverTheCap.
The 49ers’ quarterback room is going to cost a little over $16M this upcoming season, which is less than 13 NFL starting quarterbacks’ cap hits in 2022. Ultimately, it results in potential locker room weirdness, but the 49ers are betting on having an inexpensive but experienced quarterback room this season with a roster that’s ready to win it all.