How Much Money Does Trent Williams Want from the 49ers?

Pay up.

Grant Cohn | Jul 25, 2024

Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Trent Williams (71) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

Trent Williams hasn't said a word this offseason.

All we know is that he skipped OTAs and mandatory minicamp and he currently isn't at training camp because he wants a new deal. He hasn't gone on TikTok or ESPN to voice his grievances. He simply stayed away from the 49ers. And they got the message.

The 49ers have to work something out with Williams because he's their most important player -- arguably more important than their starting quarterback, Brock Purdy. Because without Williams, the 49ers would have the worst offensive line in the NFL and their offense would struggle to do anything. They're 3-6 without Williams since 2020.

So what exactly does Williams want?

The last time the 49ers gave him an extension was 2021. That year, they made him the highest-paid offensive lineman in the NFL with an average annual value of $23 million per year. Now, Penei Sewell is the highest-paid offensive lineman in the NFL with an average annual value of $28 million per year.

I'm guessing Williams wants more money than Sewell because Williams still believes he's the best offensive lineman in the league even though he just turned 36. And why shouldn't he believe he's the best? The 49ers say so constantly.

Plus they just gave Christian McCaffrey an extension which makes him the highest-paid running back in the league, so of course Williams wants the same treatment because he's even better and more important to the team than McCaffrey. The 49ers should have seen this coming.

So will they make Williams the highest-paid offensive lineman in the league? They shouldn't because of his age and the fact that he missed a few games every season. But they probably will because they're desperate to return to the Super Bowl this season and they can't do that without Williams.

Pay up.

Published Jul 25, 2024

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.