Kyle Juszczyk Agrees to a Pay Cut with the 49ers

The 49ers just created more salary cap space.

Kyle Juszczyk has agreed to a pay cut that will free up $1.75 million for the 49ers, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Before the pay cut, Juszczyk's cap hit was scheduled to be $7,588,750. Now it's scheduled to be $5,838,750, which means he still is an extremely expensive fullback who will turn 33 in April.

The 49ers could have created more than $4.9 million in cap space had they simply released him, just as they released Arik Armstead earlier this week. But they chose to keep Juszczyk and slightly reduce his salary instead.

It's hard to say why the 49ers keep paying Juszczyk so much money, considering every year the 49ers use him less and less. In 2022, he caught 19 passes in 16 games and ran 7 times for 26 yards. In 2023, he caught 14 passes in 17 games and ran 5 times for 6 yards.

When the 49ers first signed Juszczyk in 2017, they called him an offensive weapon, not a fullback -- that's how they justified his large contract. But the 49ers don't use him nearly enough to call him a weapon. They use him like a fullback. Someone who plays fewer than 50 percent of the offensive snaps. Someone who goes in motion and blocks or runs a route to be a decoy.

Instead of paying almost $6 million on a fullback, the 49ers could have spent that money on an offensive lineman who could protect Brock Purdy.

Just a thought.