Photo credit: 49ers
We’ve been waiting on this number for months. Once sports leagues began to conjure up ways to play through a global pandemic, it became clear that the NFL, as with those other leagues, would lose a significant amount of gate revenue, with fans either not being allowed into stadiums, or in limited capacity. In the 49ers’ case it meant they weren’t even allowed into their own stadium.
It was a certainty that for the first time since 2011, the league’s salary cap would drop, and precipitously. After a $198.2 million salary cap in 2020, and seven-straight years of the cap increasing by $10-plus million, the 2021 floor projections landed at a devastating $175 million. That doomsday scenario won’t take place, but there will still be significant cost cutting, as, according to multiple reports, the league will set the cap at $182.5 million.
What that means for the 49ers, after a carryover of $1.9 million in unused 2020 cap space, plus more than $11 million in adjustments from bonus money which was not conveyed last season, and the cutting of Mark Nzeocha with re-signings of Ross Dwelley and Marcell Harris, is roughly $25 million in cap space, per OverTheCap.
Along with the new cap figure comes the fifth-year option cost for players from the 2018 NFL Draft. One of the looming questions for the 49ers has been whether they would be willing to pick up McGlinchey’s fifth-year option after a brutal season in pass protection. The consensus, for the most part, was that they would, and with the number set at $10.4 million, that’s even more likely.
The NFL reminded clubs today they have until May 3 to exercise fifth-year options on their first-round picks from the 2018 draft — and the value of those options is based on performance, with players selected to 2+ Pro Bowls getting the 2021 franchise tag number. From the memo: pic.twitter.com/Se2oFLCRxB
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 10, 2021
General manager John Lynch said the team had been preparing under that doomsday, $175 million assumption. With a $7.5 million increase from that figure and roughly $13 million in carryover/adjustments, the team is primed to re-sign Trent Williams and other free agents, with a few other avenues for cost-cutting still easily available.