SF 49ers: Ranking top 5 re-sign priorities in 2021 NFL free agency
By Peter Panacy
SF 49ers Re-Sign Priority No. 1: Left Tackle Trent Williams
If there is only one player San Francisco can retain out of all its free agents, it needs to be perennial Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams.
Williams won’t come cheap. Especially not after massive recent contract extensions for other players of similar ilk, namely the Green Bay Packers’ David Bakhtiari, the Houston Texans’ Laremy Tunsil and the Baltimore Ravens’ Ronnie Stanley.
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All three of those players are younger than Williams, which works in the SF 49ers’ favor. But Williams has far greater a player profile than the other three, too, meaning he could easily end up commanding a contract in the realm of $17-plus million per year.
That alone could eat up the vast majority of the Niners’ remaining salary cap space.
Yet San Francisco doesn’t have anyone currently on the roster capable of adequately filling the void Williams could potentially leave open. And while there are some decent offensive line options coming through in the 2021 NFL Draft, few are generally seen as high-quality options like Williams is.
Williams, too, stressed a desire to return to the SF 49ers next season, calling the franchise his “No. 1 destination.”
But with limited cap resources and plenty of needs elsewhere, it’ll be more than just challenging for the Niners to make a deal work.
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All salary figures, valuations and cap totals courtesy of Over the Cap.