49ers free agency: Predicting re-sign contracts for these 3 players

The 49ers have some players set to hit NFL free agency this offseason, so we do our best to predict what it’ll cost to re-sign these three in particular.

Raise your hand if you’re old enough to remember what the NFL was like before the salary cap.

Seeing a few of you, great. You get it. The salary cap can be a challenge.

OK, so there are ways around it, and the San Francisco 49ers certainly aren’t in the worst of situations heading into the 2022 league new year, which begins on March 16. However, that is the date they have to be below the $208.2 million salary-cap threshold. And right now, at least according to Over the Cap, they’re $4.4 million over it.

If the Niners do elect to move on from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, which they’re expected to do, they’ll save $25.55 million this season. And while about $6 million or $7 million will be reserved to sign the 2022 NFL Draft class, San Francisco can make other additional moves to free up cap space.

Such is the story for most good teams any given offseason.

Nevertheless, the 49ers have some notable free agents poised to hit the open market this offseason. And while they might not be household names across the NFL, they’ve certainly been important figures to the Niners’ success over the last few years.

Maybe San Francisco is unable to re-sign the three most notable free agents we have listed here. But if it is able to do so, Niner Noise predicted what kind of deals each would wind up getting if they end up returning to the team in 2022.