The NFC West gets a little more interesting if Trent Williams doesn’t play for the 49ers
There was a time not so long ago in which Trent Williams was granted a trade request because he was no longer happy with the team he was on. Now the team that traded for him in 2020 will have to assess just how valuable Williams is to them at a time when he’s not even the only star player on the San Francisco 49ers offense who is too unhappy to practice with the 49ers.
All of those people who said that the 49ers would be able to keep the band together despite how much more expensive they would get? Yeah, those people might be wrong: Trent Williams is holding out for a new contract and isn’t going to return to the 49ers until he gets one.
Another official holdout: 49ers placed OT Trent Williams on the Reserve/Did Not Report List.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 25, 2024
That makes two: Brandon Aiyuk wants to be traded to a team that is willing to pay him the contract extension that he feels he deserves after catching 75 passes for 1,342 yards last season.
Thought by many to be the best left tackle in the NFL, and arguably the most important player on the entire San Francisco roster, Williams has been named a first-team All-Pro in each of the last three seasons. The future Hall of Famer who has made every single Pro Bowl roster since 2012 is actually signed for THREE more seasons, but without any guaranteed money he must not feel very satisfied with the $20 million and $22.5 million salaries he’s set to earn in 2024 and 2025.
Williams has a $32 million base salary in 2026, but he will be 38 by then and realizes that there’s a very low probability that the 49ers will keep their word and pay him by then.
That essentially means that Trent Williams is signed for $21 million per season over the two relevant years left on his contract, and he only has $850,000 worth of incentives/bonuses on his deal in each of those seasons. That’s only $22 million for a premier NFL player who knows that if he was on the open market, he’d be getting at least three times that much in guarantees alone.
The #49ers have placed OT Trent Williams on the Reserve/Did Not Report List pic.twitter.com/f96tqoFjVf
— OurSF49ers (@OurSf49ers) July 25, 2024
The top left tackle contract on the market right now is the $25 million per season that Laremy Tunsil got from the Houston Texans last year, followed by Andrew Thomas of the Giants at $23.5 million per season. Thomas also got $67 million fully guaranteed.
Even though Williams is actually the highest-paid left tackle in 2024 and 2025, he senses that he could get more and that if he gets hurt that he will get nothing in the future.
He also saw the 49ers give Christian McCaffrey a raise this offseason even though he was also already under contract for multiple more seasons. McCaffrey was being called the best running back in the NFL, so the 49ers gave him a raise. Williams sees people calling him the best left tackle in the NFL, so he’s wondering why he doesn’t get a raise too.
And all the while, Aiyuk has requested a trade and wants off of the team unless they pay him the top prices for a wide receiver, which at this point have crossed over $30 million thanks to the Detroit Lions paying Amon-Ra St. Brown that much. We can understand the 49ers not paying Aiyuk as much as Justin Jefferson is paid by the Vikings ($35 million per season), but when the Lions pay St. Brown that much, it makes it hard for any receiver of that ilk to take a deal for less than $30 million.
This is bad new for a 49ers team that is already projected to be about $40 million over the 2025 salary cap:
To summarize the 49ers financial woes:
- They are way over next year’s salary cap already
- Brandon Aiyuk wants to be traded unless he gets a raise to $30 million per year
- Trent Williams won’t play again until they give him a raise, probably over $25 million per year, even though he’s already 36
- Brock Purdy is extension eligible in 2025, and he’s going to want at least $55 million per season as long as he plays well this year
- Star safety Talanoa Hufanga is also entering a contract year in 2024
- Starting guard Aaron Banks is entering his contract year
- Cornerback Charvarius Ward and linebacker Dre Greenlaw (Achilles) are also entering the final years of their deals
I can only work so much magic at OverTheCap with their salary cap calculator to try and get the 49ers cap compliant in 2025 while keeping everyone happy. If the team restructures Fred Warner and Javon Hargrave, they save a total over $26.5 million. The team could trade Deebo Samuel to save $9 million more and get them nearly even with the projected cap number at $262 million.
But then what happened to Aiyuk and Williams? What will Purdy cost? What about Hufanga and Banks and Ward and Greenlaw? And what about completing a 53-man roster? Because teams need plenty of money to fill out the roster and practice squad.
The 49ers are going to start losing their star players by 2025. The question now is: Are they already losing two of their star players in 2024?