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Tuesday afternoon, the 49ers made official their trade of Parys Haralson and their new contract with Colt McCoy. The NFLPA salary cap database reflected the McCoy contract, but was not yet indicative of the Haralson trade. That has now changed. According to the NFLPA, the 49ers currently have $7,439,602 in cap space. The Haralson trade cleared $606,875 in cap space.
Yesterday we learned that the 49ers had cleared $54,375 in cap space with the Colt McCoy contract. They decreased his base salary from $1.5 million to $630,000. The reason the space does not reflect that nearly $900,000 change is because much of his previous salary was converted into game-day roster bonuses. According to Matt Maiocco, he has $870,000 in game day bonuses. That pro-rates out to $54,375 per game for 16 games. The value in this is if the 49ers are not happy with what he can do as a backup, they can deactivate or release him and save on some of those bonuses. I suspect he remains active all season, but it provides the 49ers with some flexibility if needed.
As we've discussed numerous times, the 49ers can use some of this space to work out contract extensions with current players, or they can roll it over to next year's salary cap. Tarell Brown is the biggest free agent after this season, but the 49ers will have Mike Iupati, Michael Crabtree, Colin Kaepernick and Aldon Smith all up for contracts after that. Every extra penny will be needed.