Free agency is just about 48 hours old, and it has been a crazy period for the San Francisco 49ers. The team signed three free agents before the free agency period began, and has signed 11 more unrestricted free agents since the start of the new league year on Thursday. We don’t have contract terms for every player, but we have enough, along with some healthy estimations to give an estimate of the 49ers salary cap space.
The team entered the year with over $104 million following Colin Kaepernick’s opt-out, and the release of Torrey Smith and Antoine Bethea. We have posted full terms on contracts for wide receiver Pierre Garcon, wide receiver Jeremy Kerley, and outside linebacker Malcolm Smith. Along with those, we have some estimations based on media reports. The NFLPA will update their salary cap database once they process the contracts, but in the meantime, we can offer a well-educated guess!
For the contracts we know, Pierre Garcon’s 2017 salary cap number is $6.425 million, Kerley’s is $2,016,666, and Smith’s is $3,684,375. The current salary cap space is based on the top 51 contracts plus dead money plus bonuses. Those three contracts factor into the 49ers top 51, and the dead money is $9,956,034. With all that, I have the 49ers at $91,030,183 under the salary cap.
The remaining nine free agents the team signed on Thursday and Friday have officially put pen to paper, but the NFLPA and NFL Management Council still have to process the paperwork on their end. However, there are media reports from which we can make some basic estimations.
For the time being, we know average pay per year. That is not going to be the actual cap space for 2017, because APY factors in signing bonus, even though that is prorated out. That being said, we have media reports on quarterback Brian Hoyer, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, and wide receiver Aldrick Robinson. With those deals, I have the 49ers at very roughly $74,865,183 under the salary cap. Again, this is primarily a projection of those deals.
It is worth noting, contract details have no arrived yet for quarterback Matt Barkley, tight end Logan Paulsen, linebacker Brock Coyle, defensive back Don Jones, and kicker Robbie Gould. That number will be further down once those numbers come in.
Contract figures should arrive over the next week, and I’ll be around to keep you updated!
As always you can follow me on Twitter, @Jay_AB81, or check our salary cap section here, on Niners Nation, which is the exclusive home for my salary cap information.