Finding Cap Space

By Scooter_McG

Having gone over the offensive and defensive needs for the 49ers in 2022 (see my previous articles), there are a number of good players coming off contract that the 49ers would like to either re-sign or will need to replace. In order to do so, the 49ers will need to find some cap space as they currently sit at a little more than $1M over the 2022 cap according to Over the Cap. 

Below I outline some options on how the 49ers can approach freeing up cap space in order to restock the roster.

A shout out to cubus who linked the following Jason Hurley article previously:

https://49erscap.com/index.php/2022-offseason-plan/

A lot of what Hurley writes here is very similar to my thoughts on what the 49ers should do and it is definitely well worth a read if you haven't already done so. 

Restructuring/ extending deals

First things first, no matter what happens with JG, the 49ers will need to restructure contracts in order to get below the salary cap prior to the start of the new league year. This will also be needed in order to sign any of the teams own free agents prior to the free agency period opening. 

The contracts that are the most talked about, and make the most sense for restructure, are Arik Armstead and Jimmie Ward.

Armstead is set to count for $20M against the 49ers cap in 2022. Of that, just under $15M is in new money to be paid in 2022 through salary and roster/ workout bonuses that can be converted to signing bonus on a restructured deal (noting at least the vet minimum in salary will need to be kept as salary). With four year left on his deal, if they converted around $13.5M to signing bonus then nearly $10M in bonus will be pushed to future years without even adding years to the contract. If they add an extra voidable year, that can be increased to nearly $11M. 

Jimmie Ward is set to count for just under $13M against the cap in 2022, of which $9.5M is salary and roster/ workout bonuses that can be restructured. The 49ers already restructured Ward's deal last year, adding two additional voidable years to deal to the one he had in his original deal, taking the total voidable years on his contract to three. As with Armstead, they can convert the bulk of his salary and roster/ workout bonuses (say approximately $8M) to signing bonus and have his cap hit spread across the four years in his contract (2022 season +3 voidable years) - pushing $6M down the track - or also add another year to save a little extra in 2022 (could save around $6.5M). 

However, rather than a restructure, a better solution may be to work out an extension for Ward, potentially adding 2-3 years to his contract while still generating a similar saving against the cap in 2022. 

With those two players the 49ers should be able to free up between $16M and $17.5M against the 2022 cap, easily enough to get the team cap compliant with wiggle room to tender some of their own RFAs and ERFAs. 

As Jason Hurley points out, another player that could be asked to restructure would be Samson Ebukam. He has $6.5M in salary and roster/ workout bonuses and could make a logical choice as a player the team could restructure to free up some much needed cap space. However, I highly doubt Ebukam will willingly accept a pay cut with incentives as suggested by Hurley - if that is the option the 49ers give him then Ebukam will likely say no and just take the release to go sign elsewhere. But the team could easily convert salary to bonus and add some voidable years to free up another $3M - $4M. 

One player that doesn't get talked about enough as an option for a restructure (or even a potential extension) is Mike McGlinchey. He will be playing on the 5th year option in 2022, at $10.88M - all of which is salary. That is another easy contract the 49ers could convert mostly to bonus and add voidable years (or extend his contract if the two parties can agree to terms) to free up as much as $7M - $8M of cap space in 2022. 

I highly doubt all of those deals will happen or to the extent I have outlined, but it shows that the 49ers have options available to free up cap space. 

Release Dee Ford

This one is a little tricky given Ford's roster bonus of $4.6M recently became fully guaranteed. However, I doubt that changes what the 49ers plans are with Ford - unfortunately it was just a situation where they couldn't afford to release him prior to that bonus becoming guaranteed. 

Flat out releasing Ford will now not provide any cap savings due to that guaranteed roster bonus. In fact, it would just accelerate pro-rated bonus into 2022 and increase the 2022 cap liability. So the 49ers need to get creative. 

The simplest solution would be to designate him a post June-1 cut, meaning his $4.9M in pro-rated bonuses would remain against the 2023, cap. While this would only save the 49ers around $2.4M against the cap in 2022, that's worth more than keeping a player on the books that is never fit to play. 

But an alternative solution may be to negotiate with Ford to have part of his salary and roster bonus converted to signing bonus, to push more of the dead cap hit into 2023 and freeing up more space against the 2022 cap. 

Get Jimmy G off the books

This is the most obvious place for the team to free up cap space, with either trading or releasing Jimmy G freeing up $25M in cap space.  

Ideally a trade would be in place prior to the start of the new league year so the team can have that cap space to play with as soon as free agency starts. Any delays in getting JG off the books will make it harder for the team to pursue some of the top free agents and will likely mean the team has to either be aggressive and maximise cap savings through the restructures I outlined above or look at the bargain bin for filling out the roster. 

With that in mind, there is an argument to be made for the 49ers not being too picky with the compensation they get in return for trading JG. Given the salary cap situation, unless they get aggressive and creative with restructures of existing players, it will likely be more beneficial to the team to just have Jimmy's contract gone than maximising the return they get for him. Which also might make flat out releasing him an option. While releasing him will trigger $7.5M in injury guarantees, it will still free up $18M immediately and the $7.5M is fully offset (and off the 49ers books) once he signs for another team (assuming he signs for more than $7.5M). 

Summary

Through the above avenues the 49ers have the potential to free up as much around $50M - $60M in 2022 cap space, which is more than they will need to restock the roster and make another run at the Super Bowl while protecting their young QB. 

Importantly, the 49ers do have options to free up cap space even before getting Jimmy G off the books, with around $25M - $35M likely able to be freed up if needed through restructures and releasing Ford. Given the team only needs to have cap space to sign draft picks until after the draft, they do have the option of carrying Jimmy G a little longer if they want to try and maximise their return. 

We will no doubt start to see some moves to free up cap space being made by the team over the next week and a half in preparation for free agency.