The San Francisco 49ers will be adding a large chunk to their already large amount of salary cap space this offseason with quarterback Colin Kaepernick opting out of his current contract. Niner Noise has the financial breakdown.
Before San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick opted out of his current contract, the Niners were armed with $76,963,264 in total cap space this offseason, per Over the Cap.
Earlier this week, Kaepernick’s agents confirmed what many felt would happen — the quarterback would opt out of his deal with San Francisco and hit the free-agent market.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter confirmed it would go official on Friday.
Fans will remember how Kaepernick and the Niners essentially “tore up” the previous contract under which he was signed and gave the quarterback a two-year deal in 2016, which included an opt-out clause for 2017.
He was due $14.5 million in base salary and could make up to $19,365,753 in bonuses. Here’s the breakdown on what the contract would have looked like:
Had he stayed put, there wasn’t going to be any guarantee the Niners would have kept him. Signs pointed to a dissolution of a contract.
Speaking with SiriusXM radio (h/t Nick Wagoner of ESPN), general manager John Lynch said the team would have released the quarterback if he hadn’t opted out.
“Kap is going to opt out,” Lynch said. “We had a great conversation with him. We had a great meeting, and I think we had a very frank and honest discussion, and what we both agreed was that under the current construct of the situation, everything, the contract, it wasn’t going to work.”
Lynch did leave the door open for a possible return, although such terms would likely be very different.
49ers Cap Space Increases
By doing some simple math, the Niners should now have $91,463,264 million in cap space with Kaepernick no longer on the roster.
These numbers are fluid, of course, since we can expect Lynch to be heavily active in free agency this offseason. But it at least opens up the door for some lucrative spending on San Francisco’s part.
This number, where it stands now, still keeps the 49ers at No. 2 in overall cap space this offseason. The Cleveland Browns currently have the most amount of space with $102,338,922 open against the projected $167 million salary cap.
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And the Niners could still wind up freeing more money for this offseason.
Veterans like safety Antoine Bethea and Ahmad Brooks have certainly been thrown around in cut discussions. Releasing them would save $5.75 million and $5.3 million, respectively, with relatively little dead money in the final year of each player’s deal.
Combined, this $11.05 million could increase San Francisco’s cap space to $102.5 million — slightly higher than the Browns.
Again, who knows how the numbers start adding up when free agency officially begins on March 9.
Next: 5 Blue-Chip Players the 49ers Should Target in Free Agency
Nevertheless, the 49ers are hitting the market with plenty of money to spend. And that’s a very good thing for a team in desperate need for upgrades.