On Monday morning, the San Francisco 49ers owned about $3 million in salary-cap space, ranking them near the bottom of the league in available money to spend on their roster. Then by Monday afternoon, San Francisco had over $21 million in salary-cap space. They got there by keeping Jimmy Garoppolo, the quarterback they had hoped all offseason to trade.
Holding onto Garoppolo, shockingly, worked out financially for the 49ers because they restructured the quarterback's one-year deal, shrinking his $24.2 million base salary to a more manageable $6.5 million, all guaranteed. The quarterback can make $500,000 more in roster bonuses. Still, $7 million is a significant drop from his previous cap hit.
RELATED 49ers agree to one-year contract restructure with QB Jimmy Garoppolo
There's potential for even more money. Garoppolo has another nearly $9 million in play-time bonuses built into his deal, increasing his potential income in 2022 to almost $16 million. That's not bad money for a backup quarterback, and Garoppolo doesn't have to learn a new system with the start of the regular season around the corner.
The savings catapults San Francisco up the salary-cap rankings. The team now has the fifth-most money available heading into Week 1.
Below are the five teams with the most salary-cap space in the NFL, per Over The Cap.
- Cleveland Browns, $49,091,125 in cap space
- Las Vegas Raiders, $21,606,779
- Dallas Cowboys, $21,381,619
- Carolina Panthers, $21,374,592
- San Francisco 49ers, $21,323,595
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