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It was a bad time to get the yips, but when you’ve been kicking for the better part of two decades, you can afford to bet on your body of work. That’s the case for Robbie Gould, who, after making 31-straight field goals inside of 50 yards, missed three-straight kicks, including an extra point on Saturday.
With December 31 representing the date the 49ers would have to decide on his 2021 and 2022 option years, there was a question as to whether that shaky performance would affect the team’s thinking. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said after the game that one performance would not change the team’s decision.
That proved true on Wednesday, with ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting the team will extend Gould for two years and $7.25 million.
49ers’ kicker Robbie Gould is signing a two-year, $7.25 million fully guaranteed contract extension with SF, per source. It ties him to the team through the 2022 season.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 30, 2020
That figure is a substantial cut from the $10 million Gould was slated to earn over the next two years, but it’s slightly more favorable to Gould in that it guarantees him that money up front.
Per OverTheCap, if the 49ers had picked up his option, an additional $2.25 million of his $5.25 million 2021 salary would have been guaranteed on the spot, giving him $3 million guaranteed (already had $750,000 guaranteed). The same would go for 2022; if he was on the roster on April 1 of that year, an additional $2.25 million would guarantee, for a total of $3 million guaranteed on his $4.75 million salary. But if they declined the option, Gould would have been due $1.5 million, split over 2021 and 2022.
This functions, effectively, as a restructured pickup of that two-year option. It saves San Francisco $2.75 million, but makes cutting Gould in 2022 more expensive. With the salary cap likely to drop, this gives the team additional breathing room next season.