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Will the 49ers Make Fred Warner the NFL's Highest-Paid Linebacker?

Warner's cap hit for 2025 is $29 million, so the 49ers most likely want to restructure his deal to create cap space.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 8, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner (54) looks on after the game against the Chicago Bears at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images
Dec 8, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner (54) looks on after the game against the Chicago Bears at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images | Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers recently extended George Kittle's contract through 2029, and we know they're working on a mega extension for Brock Purdy as well.

What about Fred Warner?

He has two years left on his deal, but no guaranteed money. Will the 49ers take care of him as well? The answer is yes according to The Athletic's Dianna Russini.

"I have a hard time believing that they're not going to make Fred Warner the highest-paid linebacker in football," Russini said on her podcast. "I don't know if that's the number that they're at already, I just have a hard time imagining a world where he's not the highest-paid linebacker. Talk about another example of someone who is part of the fabric of the San Francisco 49ers."

Warner's cap hit for 2025 is $29 million, so the 49ers most likely want to restructure his deal to create cap space. So I agree with Russini -- Warner probably will get a new deal this offseason.

He currently is getting paid $19.045 million per season -- second-most among linebackers and slightly less than George Kittle who just got an extension worth $19.1 million per season.

The highest-paid linebacker, Roquan Smith, gets paid $20 million per season. So I'm guessing the 49ers will give Warner a deal that pays him $20.1 million per season. And I wouldn't be shocked if Warner were to get his extension before Purdy, who probably will have to wait until late July when training camp begins.

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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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