USAT: Niners Wire audio clip

USAT: Niners Wire

Mar 16, 2022

- - - The 49ers didn’t need to do anything with Jimmy Garoppolo to get under the salary cap by Wednesday’s 1:00 pm Pacific Time deadline. Instead, they restructured the contracts of defensive lineman Arik Armstead and tight end George Kittle to free up $18.756 million in cap space. - Those restructures bring the 49ers to $4.1 million under the cap per Over the Cap. They needed to get there before the new league year opens Wednesday. - Michael Ginnitti at Spotrac, San Francisco turned $10.4 million of Kittle’s salary into a signing bonus and added one void year to free up $8.3 million in room. Then with Armstead they turned $13 million of his salary into a signing bonus and tacked on a void year. That gave the 49ers an additional $10.4 million in cap space. - In short, they pushed some of Kittle and Armstead’s money down the road and made them cheaper this year and more expensive in the coming years. - This will allow them to keep Garoppolo on the roster to give them maximum time to figure out his trade market. They would free up $18 million in space with a $7.5 million dead cap hit if they release him outright. They’ll free up $25.5 million if they’re able to trade him. Instead of releasing him to get that $18 million, they did the Kittle and Armstead restructures, and the Garoppolo waiting game continues. - - - - - - - - - - - - Email - - - - - Sign up - - - - - - - - Like this article? - Sign up for the Niners Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning - - - - An error has occured - - - Please re-enter your email address. - - - - - - Thanks for signing up! - - - You'll now receive the top Niners Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

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