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Will Kyle Juszczyk Agree to Take a Pay Cut for the 49ers?

If he refuses to take a pay cut and tests the open market, the market for him might be extremely thin.

Grant Cohn

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The 49ers asked both Kyle Juszczyk and Arik Arsmtead to take pay cuts this offseason. Armstead declined, figuring he can make more money on the open market than what the 49ers offered him, and he might be right. Will Juszczyk decline their pay cut and test free agency as well?

It's easy to see why Armstead made his decision. He was scheduled to earn a whopping $28 million this season -- he still has value, even though he's aging and getting injured. Every team needs a three-down defensive tackle who's good against the run and the pass. There's a large market for him, although not at $28 million per season.

Juszczyk is different. Juszczyk is too years older than Armsread, and Juszczyk is a fullback. Not many teams even use fullbacks. So if he refuses to take a pay cut and tests the open market, the market for him might be extremely thin. He might do better taking whatever lowball offer the 49ers have presented him.

But there's one potential ace up Juszczyk's sleeve: The Dolphins.

Their head coach is Mike McDaniel, who was a 49ers offensive assistant from 2017 to 2021. Meaning he drew up plays for Juszczyk for five seasons. And McDaniel is one of the most creative offensive coaches in the NFL -- arguably more creative than Kyle Shanahan. And the Dolphins play in Florida, a tax-free state. Which means they could offer Juszczyk exactly what the 49ers offer him, and Juszczyk would profit more on the Dolphins.

I'm not saying the Dolphins even want Juszczyk, but he probably should text McDaniel just to find out.

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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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