During the week of the Scouting Combine, word emerged of a potential contract impasse that was described, at the time, as potentially resulting in left tackle Trent Williams being released by the 49ers. It didn’t happen then, it hasn’t happened since, and there’s no sign it will be happening in the future.
Instead, the 49ers seem to be very optimistic that everything will work out.
“We’ve had good communication throughout,” G.M. John Lynch said Sunday, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN. “I would say in the last week it’s kind of intensified and feel like we’re on the precipice of something good happening, but we’ll see. Don’t want to make any statements that, like, ‘Hey, we’re right there,’ because these things have felt like that before, but I do feel like we’re in good communication and hopeful.”
Williams has a 2026 compensation package of $33.06 million. The 49ers didn’t pick up a $10 million option bonus, pushing his cap charge to $46.341 million. A new contract could reduce that number significantly by converting much of his base salary of $32.21 million into an option bonus.
“This one’s never got ugly,” Lynch said. “It’s been very straightforward, direct. And I just think there’s a lot of nuance to that situation. He’s one of the great players, I think, to ever play the game, but there’s a reality with his age. It’s like, how do you thread that needle and how do you find a deal where everyone’s taken care of and happy?”
The 49ers surely prefer not to pay him $33 million this year, none of which is currently guaranteed. The question becomes determining a structure that also gives them the ability to keep him around for 2027, and possibly beyond.
This one isn’t about Williams wanting more. It’s about the 49ers not wanting to pay $33.06 million.
Consider how it all began, with this tweet from Adam Schefter of ESPN on February 24: “With five-time All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams scheduled to carry a $39 million cap number this season, he and the 49ers currently are struggling to find a contractual solution, per league sources. If the two sides can’t bridge their differences in their standoff, Williams would be expected to join this year’s free-agent class, making him one of the premier players available.”
Again, it didn’t happen then, it hasn’t happened since, and there’s no sign it will be happening in the future.
The lack of a deadline for making a large payment or guaranteeing the salary has given the 49ers leverage. They owe him nothing until the Week 1 rosters lock. By the time the situation with Williams comes to a final head (if it ever does), other possible suitors may have made other plans and/or spent their available cash on other players.
Time is on the team’s side. The breathless notion from late last month that a split could be imminent was, if nothing else, a signal to the rest of the league (undoubtedly from Williams’s camp) that it would be wise to hold back some money, in the event Williams eventually becomes a free agent.
The 49ers hope to have Nick Bosa back in action during training camp, but it doesn’t sound like anyone should bank on him sharing a locker room with his brother.
Joey Bosa remains a free agent and the mother of both pass rushers recently posted a fabricated image of the two brothers next to each other in 49ers uniforms on social media. On Sunday, General Manager John Lynch said he was aware of the post but isn’t sure there’s a way to work out a family reunion.
“I know Mama Bosa would love that, but I don’t know if we can afford him,” Lynch said, via Matt Barrows of TheAthletic.com.
Joey Bosa is one of the top remaining unsigned players on PFT’s list of this year’s top free agents. He had 29 tackles, five sacks and five forced fumbles for the Bills in 2025.
The 49ers will be in Melbourne, Australia for their first game of the 2026 season and tight end George Kittle could be in the lineup for that game.
Kittle tore his Achilles during the team’s first playoff game in January and General Manager John Lynch offered an update on his recovery on Sunday. Lynch said, via multiple reporters, that the team is hopeful Kittle will be ready to play against the Rams when the 49ers kick off their season on September 10.
Kittle is not the only member of the 49ers recovering from a serious injury.
Defensive ends Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams both tore their ACLs last season. Lynch said that the two players are expected to be ready to work during training camp, so they could also factor into the team’s plans for Week 1.
The 49ers had a perception problem, regarding the proximity of the practice facility to an electrical substation. More than a few players, fueled by an online conspiracy, wondered whether the ambient voltage was contributing to injuries.
Last month, tight end George Kittle said he and his teammates just want to be sure it’s not something. The team is now saying it’s not anything.
Addressing reporters at the annual NFL meeting, 49ers G.M. John Lynch turned the page on the substation predicament.
“We did hire an independent scientist.” Lynch said, via Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group. “He basically [said] it was a big nothing burger. We’re safe. We’re in a safe place of work. The levels are 400 times less than an unsafe zone.”
Now, the 49ers need to get the players to accept it. That’s one of the problems with the modern age. Facts don’t matter. Some people believe what they want to believe. And they’ll ignore anything that contradicts their preordained beliefs.
It didn’t impact the 49ers in their effort to sign receiver Mike Evans. He apparently could have gotten more elsewhere. Despite his own history of hamstring problems, he disregarded the possibility that the power plant could become a soft-tissue problem.
All the 49ers can do is keep banging on the facts. The only alternative is to move the practice facility.
Two years ago, the NFL seized on a quirk in the calendar that allowed the league to televise a Friday night game, Friday Night Lights be damned. With Friday a Week 1 option only when it’s the first Friday in September, the league can’t do it in 2026, when Week 1 coincides with the second full weekend of the month.
Enter Wednesday-Thursday.
The NFL has announced that, this year, the Seahawks will host the opening game on Wednesday, September 9, with the 49ers and the Rams playing on Thursday, September 10 in Australia.
That’s likely the new formula, for the years when Thursday-Friday doesn’t work because of the league’s broadcast antitrust exemption.
Wednesday-Thursday will be the likely plan in 2027 and 2028, with the Super Bowl champion hosting the Wednesday game and an international contest happening on Thursday. In 2029, Friday will be in play. Ditto for 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033.
Of course, none of that matters if/when the league expands to 18 games and two byes. At that point, Week 1 likely would be moved to Labor Day weekend, which the NFL abandoned after 2001.
Here’s the other catch. If the current approach continues, with no NFL football on Labor Day weekend, the league’s effort to find more ways to cram cheese into the pizza would entail not a Thursday-Friday two-pack of games but a Wednesday-Thursday-Friday trifecta.
