Golden Nuggets - How much cap space do the 49ers really have?

Happy February, the sun will come out tomorrow. Oh wait! It is going to rain.

It was reported today that the 49ers are rolling over 35 million dollars in cap space from 2018 and Over The Cap reports that we have $61,881,508 dollars in cap space. People are getting all excited about this and how we should spend sixty million on free agents. Let me start with we have fifty million less in cap space than we did this time last year. Where did the money go?

Most of it went to front loading a guy named Jimmy Garoppolo’s contract. You know, the guy that got injured and missed most of the season. Part of it went to Jerick McKinnon’s contract. You know, the guy that got hurt and missed the entire season. Part of it went to Weston Richburg’s contract. You know, the guy that played injured all season and did not meet expectations. By now this has to seem pretty redundant but we also got Richard Sherman and he was only injured part of the time.

Between those four players, some extensions and some signings like Mike Person, the 49ers have fifty million dollars less in cap space than we did last year. Now let’s realize that the thirty five million dollars we are rolling over is like the money you save in your bank account. Once it is gone it is not going to be there unless you start putting money back in. While it is true that the money is not working for the 49ers if it is stuck in the bank, you still need to keep some money put away for a rainy day and future spending like extending Deforest Buckner. Now we have expenses like signing our own free agents, signing our draft picks and dead money from the players that people are in such a hurry to get rid of. Each one of those is a topic for discussion in itself.

Cutting CJ Beathard, Pierre Garcon, Garry Gilliam, Earl Mitchell, Dakota Watson, Malcolm Smith, and Brock Coyle would cost us $14,987,812 in dead money. There was an article yesterday about it costing four and a half million to sign Robbie Gould and it probably will cost the same to sign Mike Person and we still have players like Raheem Mostert and Elijah Lee that we might also like to extend. According to Over The Cap it will cost us $10,107,303 dollars to sign our draft picks which is not completely accurate because they displace other players that already count against either the top fifty one or eventually the fifty three man roster.

My point is that we are going to have between thirty and thirty five million in costs before we even think about signing free agents. While cutting players might raise our cap space to around seventy million, we still only have less than thirty five million dollars left for signing free agents and we need to save some money for a rainy day for things like signing players to replace players on our roster when they are injured.

I hear people saying things like we can pay these players on the money we won’t be paying the players that we cut this year. We are not paying those players this year. How are we going to have any more than the amount we are spending this year on dead money? We also aren’t going to have the roll over cap money we have this year to help pay their wages next year and we still need to extend DeForest Buckner.

Anyway, time to get to the hot links:

Marquise Goodwin says he sees himself as the Antonio Brown of the 49ers David Bonilla

Niners keep key assistants in midst of coaching changes John David Mercer

Trent Brown: All that “bullcrap” said about me slandered my name Charean Williams

Ex-49ers linebacker Reuben Foster still could face NFL suspension Matt Maiocco

Browns, Colts carrying over most cap space from 2018 to 2019 Josh Alper

Top 10 49ers Entering the 2019 Season: Pre-Free-Agency Edition No. 6-10 Bobby Home

49ers TE George Kittle is a great receiver but takes a lot of pride in his blocking David Bonilla

Kyle Shanahan, NFL greats believe John Lynch should be in Hall of Fame Jennifer Lee Chan

Chad Johnson wants to see his friend, Antonio Brown, with the 49ers, leaving Stephen A. Smith in disbelief David Bonilla

49ers’ George Kittle appreciates Nick Mullens but can’t wait to catch Jimmy Garoppolo passes again David Bonilla