The San Francisco 49ers are in a period of transition. After qualifying for four NFC title games in five seasons, the 49ers petered out last season, finishing in last place in the NFC West as injuries and fatigue strongly weighed down one of the NFL’s marquee organizations.
Moving forward, the 49ers are ready to become an NFC powerhouse again.
And they’re apparently ready to pull out all the stops to ensure former “Mr. Irrelevant” Brock Purdy is their centerpiece in that mission. Yes, even if it means dramatically reshaping how they build their roster around the now fourth-year quarterback.
On Tuesday, during the NFL’s annual owners’ meetings, 49ers owner Jed York made a striking confession. He said that San Francisco losing 17 players this offseason — including former All-Pros Charvarius Ward, Talanoa Hufanga, and Deebo Samuel, as well as key contributors like Leonard Floyd, Kyle Juszczyk, Aaron Banks, and Maliek Collins — was at least partially tied to saving money for Purdy’s seemingly inevitable monster contract extension.
READ MORE: All the 2025 NFL rule changes from the owners’ meetings.
At face value, this sentiment isn’t necessarily that eye-opening.
It’s not like every player the 49ers traded, released, or let walk was a core piece. Some measure of roster turnover for every NFL team every single offseason is to be expected. It’s a normal part of the business as executives consolidate around their more important players. Where this proposition gets dicey is when York makes it sound like the 49ers are specifically clearing the deck for Purdy (while also ruining his team’s negotiating position).
It’s as if York and his front office subordinates don’t understand why they made several runs deep into January (and February) over the last half-decade. That, or they’re just in denial.
More from ESPN’s Nick Wagoner:
“It’s just a math thing,” York said. “When you sit down with your guys and figure out where do you want to go, what do you want to build, when you make the decision that you want to pay a quarterback that has obviously been underpaid for his first three seasons in the NFL. When you make that change, you have to make sacrifices somewhere. It’s a decision that we made collectively, and we’re hoping that we make somebody the highest-paid player in the history of our franchise.”
Again, York’s rationale and logic make sense. It’s also not as if the 49ers were about to give up on Purdy or trade him away somewhere before he even turns 26 years old. Sometimes you just have to reward the most important position in football accordingly. This all tracks.
But that’s the rub here. The 49ers were a perennial Super Bowl contender recently because their solid starting quarterback was on a cheap contract while they could afford to fill out the rest of their roster with quality starters and stars on both sides of the ball. Purdy’s rookie deal was and is a luxury. This is why you always hear about how valuable rookie quarterback contracts are to prospective NFL contenders. Now that the 49ers are presumably going to have to pay Purdy like a top-10 quarterback (in York’s words), that means they’ll have much less flexibility to address their needs and support Purdy like they did during the first three years of his career.
In essence, the 49ers are finally paying the bill on a roster that always had an expiration date.
Of course, none of this dynamic might matter. Maybe Purdy morphs into the kind of quarterback who covers up the warts left behind by his own monster contract. I haven’t seen any reasonable evidence he’s capable of that through three years, but it doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future. No one will wonder whether he’s too expensive in this potential scenario. Nonetheless, even if Purdy becomes that sort of player, the 49ers’ margin for error in the draft and otherwise is about to get that much smaller. They can’t afford many strikeouts.
This first mass 2025 offseason exodus is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
#Brock #Purdys #extension #reason #49ers #wildly #lost #players #offseason
