Are the 49ers Clearing Salary Cap Space to Extend Fred Warner?
The 49ers now have the ninth most salary cap space available at $20.2 million.
On Monday night, Dee Ford agreed to restructure his contract and spread out his injury guarantees over the next two seasons. That allowed the 49ers to free up $11.2 million in immediate cap space, per David Lombardi of The Athletic. Now the 49ers are free to add a few extra players to improve their depth.
However, there is another path the 49ers can take with their newly found salary cap space. That path is by giving All Pro linebacker Fred Warner his well-deserved extension.
The 49ers need as much freed up cap space that they can manage if they want to retain Warner in the long-term. He is not going to be cheap. Warner is better than most of the top-paid linebackers such as C.J. Moseley who has the largest guaranteed money for a linebacker at $43 million.
So are the 49ers clearing salary cap space to extend Warner?
It is definitely going to help them do so, but I would not say that Ford's restructure is solely based on Warner. The 49ers view themselves as a Super Bowl contender. Right now, they are looking for players to help them in 2021. Filling out depth on the defensive line is crucial for their success as the lack of a pass rush was evident last season.
The 49ers just signed defensive lineman Zach Kerr to a one-year deal, so the 49ers are already looking to dip into their freed up cap space. I wouldn't say they are done adding defensive line depth either. Kerry Hyder is still out there should they want to re-sign him. There are also other quality edge rushers the 49ers could target such as Ryan Kerrigan or Melvin Ingram.
Of course, the 49ers are not going to overspend on the defensive line since Ford's contract is still hefty. And they have Nick Bosa who is going to lead the way along with Arik Armstead. As of now, this is going to be the 49ers' goal. I would not expect a Warner extension until the Summer. It will probably replicate the way George Kittle's negotiations went down.
The only issue is that structuring Warner's contract is going to be more difficult than Kittle's since top-of-the-line linebackers demand more money. There is a lot of ways the 49ers can go about it with Warner, but one thing is for certain that they need to lock him in this offseason.
