49ers $9 Million Under the Cap After Restructuing Kittle and Armstead
The 49ers did some salary cap magic a few hours before the start of the 2022 league year.
They restructured the contracts of George Kittle and Arik Armstead and created more than $18 million in salary cap space. Which means the 49ers went from being roughly $9 million over the cap to roughly $9 million under the cap. And now they're in compliance with NFL rules.
But they're not exactly movers and shakers when it comes to free agency. The cap space they've created is enough to re-sign a couple of their own free agents plus their draft picks, but not enough to sign the best players on the market, which is what they should do to go all-in and win a Super Bowl for the first time since 1995.
The only way for the 49ers to make a big, all-in move is to trade Jimmy Garoppolo and create $25 million in salary cap space. And they could trade him today at 1:00 p.m. Pacific, because that's when the league year starts and the no-trade clause in his contract expires.
But it's beginning to seem extremely unlikely the 49ers will trade Garoppolo today or any time soon, because they reportedly want two second round picks for him, and no team currently seems willing to spend that on Garoppolo.
So the 49ers will keep waiting for a team to get desperate, and Garoppolo's value will keep declining, and the 49ers will keep saying they were smart to hold onto him.
Let's all light a candle and hope today is the day the 49ers find the courage and strength to trade Garoppolo once and for good.
