Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m so ready for the NBA playoffs to resume tonight.
In today’s SI:AM:
💰 Niners’ spending spree
🏈 CFB rivalry in doubt
⛳ Sergio misses U.S. Open
John Lynch opened the checkbook
The San Francisco 49ers are keeping their core together.
Over the past three weeks, the Niners have agreed to contract extensions with three of their best players: tight end George Kittle, quarterback Brock Purdy and linebacker Fred Warner. The terms of the deal are as follows:
- Purdy: five years, $265 million ($176 million guaranteed)
- Kittle: four years, $76.4 million ($40 million guaranteed)
- Warner: three years, $63 million ($56.7 million guaranteed)
Purdy’s looming extension had been one of the biggest stories of the offseason. The Niners had benefited tremendously from having a starting-caliber quarterback not only on a rookie deal but a seventh-round rookie deal. Purdy’s initial contract, which was set to expire after the 2025 season, paid him less than $1 million per season.
Purdy’s deal is an interesting one. It’s a big contract, to be sure, but it isn’t a record-breaking one. Albert Breer called it “fair to everyone,” meaning Purdy gets a big raise, and the Niners get stability at quarterback without having to make him the highest-paid QB in the league. (If you want all the details on Purdy’s contract, including how the money is broken down annually, Breer has the full breakdown.)
Purdy’s contract is the biggest of the three, but you could argue that retaining Kittle and Warner was just as important for the franchise. Kittle is an all-time great tight end. His 7,380 receiving yards are the second-most by a tight end in the first eight years of a player’s career in NFL history (behind only Travis Kelce). Like Purdy, Kittle was set to become a free agent after this season, and so retaining one of Purdy’s favorite targets has compounding benefits for the young quarterback.
Warner was signed through the 2026 season, but the Niners acted proactively to retain one of the best inside linebackers in the league. After being named a First-Team All-Pro in four of the past five seasons, Warner is now the highest-paid linebacker in the NFL.
It’s a lot of money for the Niners to spend in such quick succession, but the team had plenty of salary cap space to work with. Kittle’s extension, which was completed in late April, actually lowered his cap hit. Even after signing this trio of stars, Spotrac estimates that the Niners have $43.2 million in cap space, second in the NFL behind the New England Patriots.
The biggest reason that the Niners have so much cap space is that they lost numerous players in free agency without signing many free agents themselves. Former San Francisco players signed free-agent deals worth a total of $319 million this offseason, while the team spent just $56 million on signing free agents. That difference of $264 million is the largest free-agency deficit in NFL history, according to CBS Sports. Notable players the Niners lost this spring include linebacker Dre Greenlaw, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, offensive guard Aaron Banks and cornerback Charvarius Ward. San Francisco also traded star receiver Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders in a salary dump move.
Given the amount of talent the Niners lost this offseason, it was important for them to avoid further attrition by keeping Purdy, Kittle and Warner. Doing so by wrapping up negotiations this early in the offseason is also significant, considering how talks with players like Trent Williams and Brandon Aiyuk in recent years dragged deep into training camp and led to holdouts. This time around, the Niners were able to avoid the distraction and tension of a holdout. The question for the Niners is whether they’ve done enough this offseason to avoid a repeat of last year’s disappointing, injury-ravaged season.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Now that the NFL schedule has been released, Gilberto Manzano provides over- and under-win totals for all 32 teams.
- An end to a rivalry? Pat Forde writes that the annual USC-Notre Dame college football game is being threatened.
- A familiar face will be missing from the U.S. Open golf tournament, as Sergio Garcia did not qualify for the event. He has played in every tournament since his debut in 1999.
- Will the Tush Push end? The Packers resubmitted a ban ahead of this week’s NFL Owners meeting.
- A number of NFL teams have roster decisions to make. Several players have uncertain futures. Which players stay or go from their current team?
The top five…
… plays in baseball last night:
5. Twins rookie Carson McCusker’s swing-and-a-miss that sent his bat flying all the way to the outfield. In fairness, it was a rainy night in Minneapolis and the bat was wet. “I just started laughing,” McCusker said later. “And I turned to the umpire and said, ‘You ever see a bat go that far?’ He said: ‘No, I haven’t. That’s the furthest I’ve ever seen.’”
4. This cinematic angle of Kyle Schwarber’s 466-foot home run.
3. Jesús Sánchez’s walk-off hit for the Marlins. Six of Miami’s 19 wins this season have come on walk-offs.
2. Shohei Ohtani’s MLB-leading 17th homer of the season—an opposite-field shot on a backdoor slider.
1. A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz’s tag just nicked a runner. The umpire’s official explanation of the call after a replay review was, “The runner’s sleeve was tagged, barely.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | The Niners Are Paying Everybody.