One thing the 49ers have been getting some polarizing opinions on is their contracts. When you first hear of a free agent signing, it appears like a egregious dump of money, only to find they are more team-friendly than what meets the eye. Of course, as fans and for salary cap purposes, this is great. On the other hand, it can sometimes raise eyebrows when looking at what the players get out of this and former sports agent Joel Corry tips his hat to the 49ers.
“They are the most team-friendly contracts in the league,” Corry said via The Ringer NFL Show. “I’ve told Brian Hampton [director of football administration and analytics] who does the day-to-day management of their cap that if I was still an agent and I had a free agent, I would never send them to you because I don’t like how you do your contracts.”
It might seem like a jab of some sort to the team for how they do their contracts, but it’s anything but.
“To me, that’s the best compliment I can give someone,” Corry said. “Because you’re supposed to do stuff an agent doesn’t like.”
Corry sighted the per-game roster bonuses as a source of frustration for him as well as dates for guarantees kicking in. Colin Kaepernick’s contract in particular was brought up for the money Kaepernick lost not being on the gameday roster in for the entirety of the 2015 and 2016 seasons due to injury.
Given that players have a limited window and lingering effects after their playing days, it’s hard not to fault the players for wanting more money. Some of you are on the side of players in this and others the team. Regardless of which side, free agents are signing with the 49ers regardless of what Corry thinks and if the contracts are truly as bad as advertised, it’s hard to think the Jimmy Garoppolo deal could have gotten done in the swift manner it was. Maybe players really want to play in San Francisco and prove themselves, or maybe these deals aren’t as terrible as Corry makes them out to be.
Of course there’s other contracts like DeForest Buckner whose representatives may be trying to swim around these contracts favoring the team and get the player paid. It will be interesting to see how negotiations go with Buckner and if the 49ers change their strategy due to agents having enough and the 49ers wanting to keep Buckner around.
Do you think the 49ers contracts are too team-friendly?