SANTA CLARA – Buyer’s remorse? The 49ers sure sound like they have it, after annual spending sprees have not cured a Lombardi Trophy drought stretching 30 years.
General manager John Lynch curiously veered into the 49ers’ financials Wednesday at the NFL scouting combine.
He did so in response to a reporter’s query about Brandon Aiyuk’s availability via trade, only six months after the wide receiver finagled a four-year, $120 million contract extension.
Lynch did not dispute a report by, The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, that teams are “poking around” about Aiyuk, and while Lynch said the 49ers will listen to such typical calls, he segued to a Joan-In-Payroll tangent (which is a decade-old reference courtesy of Jim Tomsula).
“Since Kyle and I have been here, we’ve been certainly a top-five — I believe No. 2 – cash-spending team,” Lynch said. “… So at some point you have to reset a little bit or at least recalibrate. You can’t just keep pressing the pedal and I think there’s some good that could come out.”
Translated, the 49ers are focused on spending the York family’s loot on rewarding their homegrown talent, starting with quarterback Brock Purdy’s potentially imminent extension that rockets him into the quarterback’s deserved pay grade between $50 million and $60 million annually. Lynch said there are “no guarantees” a deal will get done, but that sounded more like contract-talk posturing when he, Kyle Shanahan and Jed York have all vouched for Purdy’s long-term role.
Tight end George Kittle and linebacker Fred Warner, a pair of captains and perennial All-Pro stars, also are bucking for extensions after playing injured through last season’s 6-11, last-place trauma, so that will tie up more money.
However, the 49ers seem willing to let defenders Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga and Javon Hargrave take Arik Armstead’s route a year ago and bilk others into paying them after injury-shortened seasons. Respectfully, Lynch said the 49ers “of course” want to re-sign them and will work hard at doing so, but that’s no guarantee at a time where the salary cap is ballooning for all teams.
“We need to get younger,” Lynch continued. “We were the oldest team in football trying to make a run at the deal last year. It’s good to constantly get younger.
“Our draft class last year was a great move toward that. We’ll have four picks in the top 100, if the comp picks happen like we see it,” Lynch said. “We’ll have 10 picks overall. We’re excited about adding more youth to a great corps of players we already have.”
Younger players come with cheaper salaries and greater team control over the next few years. That may not be what the 49ers Faithful wants to hear heading into free agency March 10, but that is the 49ers’ financial reality. They rank fifth in cash spending this year at $242,428,776, according to OverTheCap.com.
A year ago, they did not break the bank on an A-list free agent. Expect the same again next month
They could pull off another blockbuster trade (see: Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey), but that will likely demand another market-setting contract, making it unlikely they land a Myles Garrett or Maxx Crosby when still paying the NFL’s highest-cost defender in Nick Bosa.
Lynch referred to “financial constraints” in regards to granting Deebo Samuel’s trade request. Samuel is entering the final year of his three-year extension and surely wants greater financial security and money, when the 49ers are understandably not compelled to satisfy that after his dip in production and dual-threat prowess. He wears a No. 1 jersey and wants to be thought of that in the pecking order, but he no longer has the on-field equity to demand the ball.
The combine’s original intent is to analyze college prospects ahead of the draft, and Lynch made an interesting point about “a different world” where players now can enter the NFL after getting paid as amateurs.
“One of the advantages I think we get is a lot of these guys now have money in college and oftentimes, you’ve got to make mistakes to learn,” Lynch said. “Sometimes they’ve made their mistakes and hopefully they’re a little better equipped. We used to get them when they never had money, and all of a sudden they have money and they’ve got people asking them for money and, ‘You should do this investment.’ Maybe they’re a little more battle-tested by the time they get to us.”
The same can be said of this 49ers regime as it enters a ninth season under Lynch and Shanahan. They caved to the financial demands a year ago of Aiyuk, Trent Williams and Christian McCaffrey. Now a few other homegrown stars expected a deserved raise, too.
No, tthe 49ers are not going to go cheap, but they intent on becoming more prudent with who they pay. Or so it seems two weeks before free agents strike it rich, more likely from a team other than the 49ers.