The San Francisco 49ers continued their offseason contract extension spree on Monday by coming to terms with Fred Warner on a three-year, $63 million pact with over $56 million guaranteed.
Warner became the highest-paid linebacker in the game (again), fresh off the heels of the Niners giving both Brock Purdy and George Kittle extensions in recent weeks. He might be approaching 30 years of age, but Warner is still one of the best defensive players in football. Paying him undoubtedly makes sense, but doing so comes with its consequences.
This money that the Niners are committing to keep their core together adds up. Adding these extensions onto the big money that the team owes guys like Trent Williams, Christian McCaffrey, and Brandon Aiyuk, and suddenly, the Niners are a very cash-strapped team with little wiggle room. This means paying others becomes a lot tougher, and will result in several players departing within the next year.
3) Jauan Jennings is a luxury that the Niners can no longer afford
With the Niners being riddled with injuries last season, Jauan Jennings had to step up. He did so in a big way, setting career highs with 77 receptions, 975 receiving yards, and six touchdowns in 15 games played. He went from never recording more than 420 receiving yards in a single season to being more productive than guys like Tyreek Hill and DJ Moore in that statistic.
Aiyuk should be back healthy this season, but Deebo Samuel's departure will result in Jennings having an elevated role in the team's offense. While that's good for this season, it's hard to imagine Jennings sticks around long-term.
The Niners are already paying Aiyuk long-term and drafted Ricky Pearsall in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. They might not want to commit to Pearsall being the WR2, but when money is hard to come by, it's hard to justify paying Jennings when other needs must be met first. To put it simply, he's a luxury that the Niners will not be able to afford past this season.
2) The Niners have no reason to extend Jordan Elliott's contract
Jordan Elliott signed a two-year, $7 million deal with the Niners last offseason to provide some defensive line depth. Unfortunately, he failed to make much of an impact.
Despite appearing in 47 percent of the team's defensive snaps, up from 42 percent back in 2023 with the Cleveland Browns, Elliott had 19 tackles, two tackles for loss, two QB hits, and didn't record a single sack. All of these numbers were down from his 2023 production when, again, he saw the field less.
The Niners must improve their defensive line, and paying a guy who ranked 165th out of 219 interior defenders last season with a 47.6 overall grade, according to PFF, when money will be hard to come by, just doesn't make much sense for the Niners.
1) Yetur Gross-Matos doesn't have much of a future with the 49ers
The 49ers used their first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on Mykel Williams, a defensive end out of Georgia, to play alongside Nick Bosa. How good Williams will be at the NFL level remains to be seen, but the Niners are going to give him every chance to play. This means Yetur Gross-Matos' future in San Francisco is very much up in the air.
Gross-Matos signed a two-year, $18 million deal with the Niners last offseason and had a pretty strong debut season in San Francisco. The 27-year-old racked up four sacks and seven QB hits while appearing in only 11 games, proving to be one of their best defensive linemen not named Bosa or Leonard Floyd.
While he's probably worth the money he's set to make, what role will he have in San Francisco if Bosa and Williams are the team's primary edge rushers? The team probably won't release him now, but it's certainly hard to envision him being in San Francisco beyond this season when he can find a starting job elsewhere.
The Niners are not in a position where they can afford to pay real money to those who won't be playing major roles. Williams' arrival all but confirms that Gross-Matos' role will be reduced.