How the 49ers paid Christian McCaffrey — all while racking up salary-cap space (2024)

The San Francisco 49ers rewarded Christian McCaffrey this week with a two-year extension that’s guaranteed him $24 million and broadened his lead — to an average pay of $19 million annually — as the NFL’s highest-paid running back. They also recently extended receiver Jauan Jennings with a significant pay raise, a two-year deal worth up to $15.4 million.

In short, the 49ers have given out significant chunks of money — but they’ve also opened up 2024 salary-cap space. They now have over $32 million of it, which grants them valuable optionality.

Let’s examine how the 49ersmaneuvered to make this happen, with an eye toward their longer-term strategy, which presumably includes even bigger spending on new contracts for receiver Brandon Aiyuk and quarterback Brock Purdy.

There are two fundamental pillars on which the 49ers are basing their financial strategy: the NFL’s annually increasing salary cap and the unused cap space that carries over from year to year.

The massive $30.6 million rise of the salary cap from 2023 to 2024, tied to surging league revenue, has given the 49ers reason to believe that increases will continue rolling in. And that has bolstered their confidence in deferring cap payments to the future when every dollar that hits the books is projected to take up a smaller percentage of the cap than it would now.

Think of it as a zero-interest loan against the cap. There is no fee for pushing hits into the future. To maintain cap solvency, it’s necessary to establish good flow control, so that too many cap hits don’t crowd any given year’s books and thrust the 49ers into “cap hell” — or the point where they’re forced to cut good players just to achieve cap compliance.

To this point, the 49ers have managed that. The challenge moving forward is maintaining effective flow control, even if and when deals for Aiyuk, Purdy and others are executed.

That’s why the 49ers acted preemptively in March, requesting that defensive lineman Arik Armstead and fullback Kyle Juszczyk take pay cuts (Juszczyk accepted; Armstead did not — he is now with the Jacksonville Jaguars). And that’s why we can expect the 49ers to continue playing hardball with Aiyuk. Given this team’s long list of big expenditures, a new contract closer to the realm of other receiver deals — and not in the outlying territory the Minnesota Vikings just awarded Justin Jefferson — seems like the 49ers’ only viable option.

The Jefferson Jump is insane.

Most fully-guaranteed money, WRs…

1. Justin Jefferson: $88.7m
— $36.2m gap —
2. Tyreek Hill: $52.5m
3. A.J. Brown: $51m
4. Calvin Ridley: $47
5. D.J. Moore: $41.6m

— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) June 3, 2024

But let’s get back to flow control. Any deal the 49ers execute with Aiyuk will be predicated on that, and the team’s machinations with McCaffrey and Jennings offer a good representation of the 49ers’ big-picture strategy.

Here’s a look at McCaffrey’s new contract.

Guaranteed base salary is shaded in orange. Signing bonus prorations are shaded in blue (the 49ers had restructured McCaffrey’s previous contract in 2023, so this deal inherited an existing proration that stretches to 2027). The first option bonus proration is shaded in green. The second option bonus proration is shaded in teal.

Note: In addition to the figures above, McCaffrey also has $500,000 total in per-game roster bonus money scheduled for each season from 2024 to 2027 on top of $400,000 total in offseason workout bonus money scheduled for 2025 to 2027.

McCaffrey’s old contract, which the 49ers had inherited from the Carolina Panthers in the 2022 trade for him, had $24.2 million remaining over the next two seasons. None of that was guaranteed.

The 49ers, while believing the NFL’s reigning offensive player of the year was deserving of guarantees, also benefited from giving them to him. That’s because signing and option bonuses, by NFL rule, can be prorated over up to five years against the salary cap.

McCaffrey’s previous deal was rigid; his $24.2 million was split into base salaries across two seasons. So the 49ers gladly ripped up the old contract and awarded $24 million guaranteed through a different avenue. They reduced McCaffrey’s base salaries from 2024 to 2026 to the veteran minimum, guaranteed the first one ($1.21 million), paid out a $14.29 million signing bonus and then guaranteed $8.5 million of a $14.245 option bonus that kicks in come 2026.

The equation is simple: $1.21 million 2024 base salary + $14.29 million signing bonus + $8.5 million 2025 guaranteed option bonus= $24 million fully guaranteed.

The 49ers also bought two more years, 2026 and 2027, of team control — and used these new seasons as a flow control tool.

The remaining $5.745 million of McCaffrey’s $14.245 million 2025 option bonus will vest into a guarantee if he’s on the roster April 1 of next season. He then has a third option bonus worth $10.55 million scheduled to kick in come 2026.

The 49ers set up all three of McCaffrey’s bonuses to prorate over the full five-year span against the cap by creating three void years. Think of the staggered structure, highlighted by the shades of color above, to be an accordion the 49ers have spread over seven years to lower McCaffrey’s cap hits in the short term.

In fact, the 49ers slashed McCaffrey’s 2024 cap hit by $7.4 million (to $6.7 million) and his 2025 number by nearly $5 million (to $9.8 million) using this technique.

The 49ers had only used the triple-bonus mechanism once, in 2023’s huge contract for defensive lineman Nick Bosa. So for now, McCaffrey’s cap bills stretch to 2030, although any unpaid amount will accelerate to hit the books whenever the running back leaves the 49ers.

Jennings’ contract uses the same technique, although the 49ers could fit only two bonuses because it’s just a two-year deal.

Consider that Jennings, a restricted free agent, stood to make and count $4.9 million against the cap on the tender the 49ers had initially offered him. This new deal has guaranteed Jennings an additional $3.5 million (a total of $8.4 million is fully guaranteed) while reducing his 2024 cap number and allowing the 49ers to keep him at an affordable rate in 2025.

Again, both parties stand to benefit through an increase in fully guaranteed money.

There are two keys at play to make this possible: the 49ers’ willingness to pay lucrative bonuses and the dependability of the players receiving them.

The latter, of course, is inevitably at least somewhat of a gamble. Injuries and physical declines are inevitable. But the 49ers have made it clear that they’re willing to re-invest in players they project to continue delivering cost-efficient production. More often than not, they’ve bet correctly — and that’s how the 49ers have built and retained such a star-studded roster, with enough cap space to continue adding more.

As far as 2024 savings go, the $7.4 million opened up by McCaffrey’s extension and the $2.1 million added by Jennings’ new contract have combined to push this season’s total pool of available salary-cap room to $32 million.

The 49ers have in-season spending flexibility, should they wish to acquire a contract via trade during their pursuit of a championship this fall. They set themselves up similarly in 2023, restructuring contracts to unlock nearly $40 million of space before the season began.

Most of that room went unused, allowing the 49ers to carry it over into 2024 and achieve cap compliance — even in a year featuring rising costs and due dates on a bevy of deferred cap payments.

The team is now set to repeat that cycle.

A growing salary cap paired with financial discipline should allow the 49ers to continue surfing this wave. This is where tough negotiations with Aiyuk fit. And in a year, if the current trajectory holds, Purdy will be at the table.

That might mark the time for the 49ers to use their first quadruple-bonus structure. It also might mark an inflection point in the team’s larger-picture spending strategies. But those are all discussions to save for 2025.

(Top photo of Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk: Darren Yamash*ta / USA Today)

David Lombardi is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the San Francisco 49ers. David joined The Athletic after three years with ESPN, where he primarily covered college football. Follow David on Twitter @LombardiHimself