49ers, Colin Kaepernick begin contract negotiations, per multiple sources

As expected, the San Francisco 49ers and Colin Kaepernick appear to be officially into the contract extension negotiation phase of the offseason. Patriots beat writer Jeff Howe tweeted this Friday night, and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport followed up with his own report Saturday morning.

Rapoport reported the parties "met at an Indianapolis steak house on Friday night to begin preliminary contract negotiations." I'm pretty sure the steakhouse in question was Shulas. It's a fairly minor part to the story, but something about this being included in a report makes me laugh. It's one of the benefits of the NFL Combine as all teams and agents are on hand. Plenty of business can be accomplished in short order.

As the negotiations develop, I have to think we'll start to hear some leaks on where the two sides stand. Kap is due to make $973,766 in base salary, and potentially a $100,000 workout bonus. The question for the two sides is what he is worth at this point, in this market.

Kap spoke on the subject during Super Bowl media week. He said he wants to be paid fairly compared to his peers, but he also recognized the 49ers need to maintain some cap maneuverability. Anquan Boldin is the most notable free agent, and I have to think if a deal gets done with Boldin, it will be well before Kap gets any deal done. The 2014 salary cap projection is a little higher than expected, so we'll see how that potentially dictates Boldin's deal, and maybe in turn Kap's deal.

In reality, an extension on Kap's deal would probably not mean a whole ton for 2014 cap space. He would likely end up with a low base salary and sizable signing bonus that would pro-rate out over the length of the deal. It would impact 2014, but not as much as later years.