On July 8, San Francisco 49ers running back Raheem Mostert and his agent requested a trade after months of what they described as "unproductive" contract negotiations. Mostert is scheduled to earn a base salary of $2.575 million in 2020, which is the second year in the three-year deal he signed last offseason.
By comparison, running back Tevin Coleman leads 49ers running backs in earnings with a 2020 base salary of $4.55 million. The request led many to speculate on Mostert's NFL future, and whether or not his time with San Francisco could come to an end.
It seemed unlikely, however, that the 49ers would grant his trade request without another team offering something they could not refuse. That probably wasn't going to happen with so much uncertainty surrounding the upcoming season and beyond.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network on Monday reported that Mostert had reached out to the 49ers to "clear the air." That was good news for fans hoping to see Mostert remain in the Bay Area.
Olive branch? #49ers RB Raheem Mostert spoke to a high-ranking member of the SF organization to clear the air and get on the same page moving forward, sources say. Asked about the situation being worked out, agent @TesslerSports said, "Hopefully that'll be the case."
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 20, 2020
The NFL insider joined KNBR on Tuesday (h/t to Jacob Hutchinson of KNBR) and discussed the situation between the 49ers and their running back.
"It seems like they're in a lot better place now than they were whenever the original message delivered by his agent, Brett Tessler -- what was it? About two weeks ago, whenever," Rapoport told Greg Papa and John Lund. "On one hand, for Mostert, I get it. He clearly changed roles, clearly outperformed his contract. So, in his mind, he's a productive back and was productive in the team's most important games. He deserves to get paid.
"I also understand it from the team's standpoint. They literally just did a deal for him. It's hard enough for anyone to get paid two years out. Maybe, as a quarterback, you get it. As a running back, it's hard to even get paid once, let alone after an extension when you have two years left."
Rapoport says Mostert had a really good conversation with one of the higher-ups within the 49ers organization.
"I know that [Mostert] is someone they want to take care of and are willing to take care of in some form or fashion," Rapoport continued. "I don't know if they're going to be able to do some sort of additional compensation, maybe it's incentives, something to better account for the kind of production that they believe he is going to have.
"But this is a really smart organization. They usually do the right thing. I would imagine they're going to be able to work something out, and this sort of trade request is going to, at some point, be something in the past."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Rapoport below.
