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Will 2025 be the Final Season of 49ers LT Trent Williams' Career?

Trent Williams is an elite left tackle, but it's unclear how much longer the 49ers can count on him to play.
Grant Cohn|
Jun 10, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) reacts to a blocking drill during an OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jun 10, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) reacts to a blocking drill during an OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Trent Williams is an elite left tackle, but it's unclear how much longer the 49ers can count on him to play.

Every season since he got traded to the 49ers in 2020, he has missed multiple games with an ankle injury. Last season, he missed seven games with a high-ankle sprain. And when he doesn't play, the 49ers are just 4-12 without him. That's why the 49ers are so reluctant to find a replacement.

Still, he could decide to retire at any time. Fortuntely for them, CBS Sports does not expect Williams to retire after this upcoming season.

"Trent Williams is a sure-fire Hall of Famer whenever he's up for consideration, but he keeps laughing at Father Time," writes CBS Sports' Tyler Sullivan. "He's set to turn 37 years old before the start of the 2025 season, which would be his 15th in the NFL. Despite being so long in the tooth, he's widely considered one of, if not the best, left tackles in the game today. Williams did miss a chunk of last season, however, as he was limited to just 10 games due to an ankle injury. If the injury bug continues to bite him in 2025, that could be the precursor to him finally hanging it up.

"Beyond that, however, Williams doesn't seem to have eyes for retirement anytime soon, saying recently, 'I would love to play until I'm 40.' So while it's entirely possible this could be his final season, we'll take him at his word that he's sticking around beyond 2025."

I wouldn't be so quick to take Williams at his word. This is business.

Next season will be the final one on Williams' contract, and his salary cap number will be nearly $39 million. That means the 49ers will want to restructure his deal, and Williams will want an extension. If he doesn't get one, he just might retire.

So 2025 very well could be the final season of Williams' career. Stay tuned.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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