It sounds like George Kittle did a solid favor for his homeboy Nick Bosa.
On Wednesday, the same day the 49ers reportedly agreed to a five-year, $170 million contract with Bosa to make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, the 49ers reportedly cleared up $23.2 million in cap space by restructuring deals with Kittle and Trent Williams.
While teams often convert base salaries into signing bonuses and pay players up front with a nice check, Kittle made it known that wasn’t the case for him, despite reports to the contrary. On Thursday, Kittle was asked why he decided to restructure.
“Nick Bosa’s here,” Kittle said. “I’m a Niner, I love this team. It doesn’t really affect me at all. I did not get a $10 million signing bonus, which you guys put on Twitter. I did not get that paycheck. It’s just the way they restructured it. That woulda been cool. That woulda been sick – I love signing bonuses – but I didn’t get any money up front for that. I’m just being a nice guy.”
Media members speculated that Kittle was cut a $10.6 million signing bonus check, but it sounds like the 49ers got creative with the salary cap in other ways. According to OverTheCap.com, the Niners currently have $23.7 million in cap space, which could be used to lure a high-profile trade acquisition during the season, à la Christian McCaffrey in 2022.
While the NFL is known for having a “hard” salary cap, front offices around the league are filled with shrewd economists who know how to push the numbers around to make things work year-to-year. For San Francisco, President of 49ers Enterprises and EVP of Football Operations Paraag Marathe, VP of Football Administration Brian Hampton and Senior Salary Cap manager Jeffrey Diamond were probably the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes.
If we’re to take Kittle at his word and assume he didn’t get an up-front signing bonus, it appears that the team tacked on void years to the end of his contract and spread out his payments for the future. If this is the case, the 49ers are simply kicking the can down the road and picking up the tab later with “dead money" and when the salary cap is projected to keep rising.
Taking a look at this year’s salary cap, former 49ers players like Dee Ford ($8.6 million), Trey Lance ($8.4 million), Jimmie Ward ($6.4 million) and Alex Mack ($1.5 million) are still making sizable dents in the final cap number. In fact, Ford’s cap hit is the seventh-highest on the team this season – between Deebo Samuel ($8.7 million) and Javon Hargrave ($6.6 million) – even though Ford hasn’t played a snap for the 49ers since 2021.
Kittle is about to enter the third season of the market-setting (at the time) five-year, $75 million extension he signed in 2020. According to Spotrac.com, Kittle currently has two void years on his contract, as he will count $6 million against the cap in 2026 and $2.1 million in 2027, though his contract only runs through 2025.
