The NFL will reportedly increase the salary cap in 2021, making the 49ers’ contract situations with tight end George Kittle and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner provocative, to say the least.
It’s safe to say fans won’t have to necessarily worry too much about the San Francisco 49ers‘ cap situation in 2021.
Currently pressed up against the $200 million salary cap set in place this upcoming season, there are reports the NFL will increase the total cap significantly the following year, which will shift the landscape around the league quite a bit.
While at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine, FanSided’s Matt Verderame reported the 2021 salary cap could jump all the way up to $240 million, an increase of 20 percent:
Multiple league sources tell @FanSided the NFL salary cap could potentially reach $240 million in 2021.
— Matt Verderame (@MattVerderame) February 28, 2020
The 2020 projected cap is $200M and could settle as high as $204M depending on a few factors.
A leap that big is pretty significant.
And it also has notable effects on what the Niners end up doing with two of their top players, tight end George Kittle and defensive tackle DeForest Buckner.
Buckner, the Niners’ top pick from the 2016 NFL Draft, enters a contract year on his fully guaranteed fifth-year option at $14.36 million:
San Francisco would have been able to ink Buckner to an extension last season, yet no deal took place. According to Spotrac’s market-value tool, Buckner would be worth a five-year, $81,160,895 contract with an average annual salary of $16,232,179.
Expensive. But with a reported extra $40 million to play with in 2021, it’s a number the 49ers could easily make work.
Getting there, however, could be risky. Buckner, amid a contract year, could have one of the more highly productive campaigns of his career this upcoming season, only serving to drive that price tag up higher. Granted, the Niners could apply a franchise tag upon the former Oregon Duck to at least keep him around into 2021, perhaps negotiating a new deal during the open window for contract talks with tagged players. But those situations can get tricky. Just ask what happened with the 49ers and kicker Robbie Gould last season.
Kittle, meanwhile, just finished year three of his four-year rookie deal. Not a first-round pick, Kittle isn’t eligible for the fifth-year option, so he’s entering a contract year now after emerging as Pro Football Focus‘ best player in 2019.
Spotrac suggests Kittle’s new contract would be in the range of four years, $45,865,835 with an average annual salary of $11,466,459. This would, not surprisingly, make him the highest-paid tight end in the history of the league.
But it wouldn’t be shocking to see Kittle’s camp ask for even more. After all, considering all the things Kittle does for San Francisco — a bona fide receiving threat, blocking, leadership, etc. — going after top-end wide receiver-kind of money isn’t out of the question.
Kittle’s agent, Jack Bechta, said he is going to be “very patient” regarding a new contract for his client, according to Matt Barrows of The Athletic (h/t Bleacher Report).
Do Bechta’s words mean Kittle’s camp is preparing to hold out? Will Kittle refuse an initial extension this season, instead aiming for a pending free-agent offseason in which he could counter with the kind of money he could receive on the open market amid the massive salary cap increase?
It’s hard to say.
Even in that situation, though, the 49ers wouldn’t be pressed into letting either Kittle or Buckner walk strictly for financial reasons. The $40 million increase is more than enough to re-sign both players with plenty of additional cash to spend on roster needs elsewhere.
Either way, Buckner, Kittle and the 49ers all benefit from the increased cap, even if it means some mega deals are going to be in the works.