The 49ers were always going to need to do some gymnastics to be active in free agency and get under the salary cap. They began that process Tuesday evening with a restructure of linebacker Fred Warner’s contract that created $9.5 million in space per ESPN’s Field Yates.
San Francisco converted some of Warner’s 2023 base salary of just under $13 million into a signing bonus, which helps spread his initial 2023 cap hit out over the next couple of years. Doing so pushed some of his money into future years while slashing his 2023 cap hit by $9.5 million.
Warner’s base salary is now $1,080,000 with his prorated bonus of $7,369,000. Adding those two numbers together gets to Warner’s new 2023 cap hit of $9,049,000 per Over the Cap.
With the Warner restructure combined with Charvarius Ward’s restructure, the 49ers’ now have $13,531,688 in room after beginning Tuesday over the salary cap.
