San Francisco 49ers: Say What You Want About Paraag Marathe, but He’s Great at Contracts and Salary Cap Management

San Francisco 49ers Executive Vice President of Football Operations Paraag Marathe might have a bad reputation among Niners fans. But one cannot argue his innate ability to negotiate contracts and manage the salary cap.

When Paraag Marathe’s name is mentioned among circles of 49ers fans, many would likely be inclined to hope he stays out of football decisions and lets guys like general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan do their jobs.

But San Francisco’s Executive Vice President of Football Operations has one glowing strength — his ability to manage contract negotiations and the salary cap.

Marathe’s name came to the forefront in 2015, especially when Niners Nation’s Stephanie McCarroll cast some light on an otherwise shadowy figure.

San Francisco 49ers

She wrote:

"Marathe – an analytics guru and numbers cruncher – often presented mid-game suggestions for [Jim] Harbaugh to go for it on fourth down, or go for two instead of kicking an extra point. At certain points, Marathe was even given a chair in the coaches booth and put in charge of replays and determining whether or not to suggest challenging questionable calls."

And Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee  (h/t Jake Montero of KNBR 680) backed this up as well:

"The issue with Paraag — with coaches and GMs — is when he starts sitting in on the football meetings. “Why is a non-football guy part of this meeting?” Apparently, that was an issue for Chip Kelly as well."

Marathe was demoted from his president position late in 2015, although the move was short lived. He wound up being a critical part of CEO Jed York’s interview process — one which eventually landed Lynch and Shanahan.

Paraag Marathe and the 49ers Salary Cap Situation

Perhaps York and the Niners front office finally learned a valuable lesson after the past few seasons. Marathe surely has his strengths, and one might argue involving himself in on-field football decisions isn’t one of them.

“I’m just telling you, the son-of-a-gun is good.” — Mike Nolan on Paraag Marathe

But no one would say that about his ability to negotiate contracts and manage the salary cap.

Marathe has been a part of York’s inner circle ever since the latter took over as CEO in 2008. Even beforehand.

And the Niners have never been pressed into a situation where poor cap management has affected the team. No, those mistakes were reserved for 2002, 2003 and 2004.

“I think Paraag, personally, I think he’s one of the best at the job he does … as far as the cap and contracts and really putting together all the information,” former 49ers head coach Mike Nolan said on KNBR last January (h/t CSN Bay Area). “I’m just telling you, the son-of-a-gun is good.”

Even when the 49ers lacked all sorts of talent heading into 2017, the Niners weren’t burdened by a plethora of poor contracts and underperforming veterans eating up a sizable portion of the cap.

It’s surely one of the reasons both Lynch and Shanahan were attracted to come to the 49ers.

2017 Free Agency and the Salary Cap

San Francisco entered 2017 with upwards of $90 million in salary cap space — second most in the NFL behind the Cleveland Browns.

And even though the Niners were one of the more active teams when free agency opened, the cap space remains almost the same — $90.61 million, per Spotrac.

Of course, it did help letting quarterback Colin Kaepernick opt out and releasing costly veterans Torrey Smith and Antoine Bethea. Still, the message is clear Marathe is good at this sort of thing.

We can see it with the 49ers’ biggest free-agent signing of the offseason, wide receiver Pierre Garcon.

On the surface, Garcon’s five-year, $47.5 million contract looks like a big overspend, especially considering he’s 30 years old and will receive as much as $16 million this season.

Remember though, this is a front-loaded deal.

And as NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo pointed out, the two years at the end are “pretty much dummy years.”

In short, the Niners can get out of this contract relatively quickly if things don’t work out.

This shows why Marathe is very good at what he does.

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Even with the overabundance of cap space, the 49ers still don’t find themselves in a position where they had to throw an excess of money at free agents on contracts that could easily come back to bite them in a few years.

Marathe deserves a lot of credit for ensuring this was the case.

So even if you’re reluctant to praise Marathe for his team involvement elsewhere, you should at least praise him for what he does well.

One can bet the 49ers do.