The 49ers on Saturday converted $5.45 million of Trent Williams’ base salary into a signing bonus per ESPN’s Field Yates. The move generates $4.36 million in cap space for San Francisco.
In-season cap space gives the team flexibility to make signings or trades, and gives some room for paying incentives like the ones in Deebo Samuel and Jimmy Garoppolo’s contracts.
Prior to the move, the 49ers were working with about $3.7 million in space per Over the Cap. Now they’ll sit a touch over $8 million following the reworking of Williams’ deal.
Cap space could become an important thing to watch for the 49ers going into an offseason where a Nick Bosa extension is coming, and where the door is open to a Jimmy Garoppolo return at a deal that would far eclipse the one he restructured to for 2022.
Williams originally signed his mammoth six-year, $138.06 million contract last offseason. This redoing of his deal will be largely inconsequential over the life of the contract, assuming he continues playing like one of the NFL’s best left tackles for the next four or five seasons.
