49ers quarterback Mac Jones is set to make a little more money in 2026.
According to multiple reports, Jones and the 49ers have agreed on a revised contract for the coming season. The reworked deal includes a $300,000 roster bonus for the backup to Brock Purdy.
Jones is now due to make $3.55 million in total compensation for the final year of his contract with the NFC West team. There are another $2.25 million in incentives available as well.
Jones started eight games for the 49ers while Purdy was sidelined with a toe injury during the 2025 season. The Niners would prefer to turn to him less often this year, but the team’s 5-3 record with Jones shows why they value having him on hand.
Wide receiver Mike Evans joined the 49ers as a free agent this offseason and the relationship he builds with quarterback Brock Purdy is going to be an essential part of the team’s offense in 2026.
Purdy shared some insight into that process on Wednesday. Purdy said that he has learned that Evans sees the field “like a quarterback does” and that their work has centered on working through the offense to make sure they are seeing the same things at the same times.
Evans’s insights into the game led him to great success in Tampa and Purdy acknowledged the burden that comes with making sure his time with the 49ers is going to be just as fruitful.
“He’s been awesome,” Purdy said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “What he’s done in his career, he’s a Hall of Famer, thousand-yard seasons — really year after year, his whole career — he’s won a Super Bowl. Just being around him and in his presence and understanding what it’s going to take to play with him. And just like, honestly, like the good pressure that it brings. I have a guy that is demanding success and demanding to be great, and I love that. I want to play with guys like that.”
When he wasn’t talking specifically about Evans on Wednesday, Purdy said he thinks the 49ers have what it takes to win the Super Bowl this season. Building a bond with Evans that allows the wideout to thrive at his previous level would boost those hopes.
The 49ers have spent plenty of time in the playoffs during Kyle Shanahan’s time as their head coach, but four trips to the NFC title game and two trips to the Super Bowl have not ended with anyone in their uniform hoisting a Lombardi Trophy.
Last year’s trip to the playoffs ended with a divisional round loss to the Seahawks and quarterback Brock Purdy thinks the team is positioned to make another run at the title this year. During an appearance at the 2026 Dwight Clark Legacy Series event, Purdy expressed confidence that the team’s roster is capable of winning it all while also noting that a lot more goes into it than just having a lot of talent.
“You guys have seen it in years past. NFC championship, getting to the Super Bowl, being right there. How 2023 ended with that taste in our mouth and not being able to finish,” Purdy said, via NBCSports Bay Area. “Obviously, we have what it takes to go all the way and win it, that’s when we’re at full strength and good to go. But even though we are at full strength and full health, that’s not guaranteed. That’s the cool thing about the guys we have in the locker room and organization: No one just sits there and says, ‘Oh, look at our roster and how beautiful it looks.’” Guys are ready to go. When it’s said and done, we want to come back like all these guys and have rings on our fingers and celebrate those key wins and moments with the history of 49ers. That’s what’s on our mind, so we got to do it.”
The 49ers overcame a lot of injuries, including one to Purdy, in order to return to the postseason last year. That only serves to underscore the point that a lot has to fall into place in order for the team to survive their division, conference and league as a whole in 2026.
Sherman Lewis, whose long coaching career included 12 seasons as an NFL offensive coordinator, has died at the age of 83.
Lewis was an All-American halfback at Michigan State, and in 1963 he finished third in Heisman Trophy voting. He also won three Big Ten titles in track and field.
Although he was drafted by both the NFL and the AFL in 1964, he chose to begin his professional playing career in the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts. He would later play in the AFL for the Jets in 1966 and 1967, seeing most of his action as a punt and kickoff returner.
In 1969, after his playing career ended, Lewis returned to Michigan State to begin his coaching career. He was an assistant for the Spartans for 13 years before Bill Walsh hired him to work on the 49ers’ coaching staff in 1983. Lewis stayed in San Francisco for nine seasons.
In 1992, 49ers assistant Mike Holmgren was hired as head coach of the Packers, and Holmgren hired Lewis to be his offensive coordinator, a role Lewis filled for Holmgren’s entire tenure in Green Bay.
After eight years as the Packers’ offensive coordinator, Lewis spent two years as the Vikings’ offensive coordinator and two more years as the Lions’ offensive coordinator. His final season of coaching took place in Washington in 2009.
When 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan aired grievances at the annual NFL meetings in March about his team getting the short straw for a long trip to Australia to face the Rams — at (as Shanahan insists) the specific request of the Rams — Shanahan held out hope for a nugget of consideration when the 49ers return to the United States.
Shanahan wanted his team’s Week 2 game to happen on Monday night.
That isn’t happening for the 49ers. Instead, the Rams will get the extra day to adjust and recover after playing in Australia. They host the Giants on Monday night, September 21.
Only one of the two Australia teams could have gotten the extra day. Still, some will wonder whether Shanahan’s public gripes prompted a little twist of the knife by the league office. At times, the powers-that-be can have a very long memory — and they sometimes don’t react well to public complaints.
To his credit, Shanahan wasn’t bashful about speaking his truth. And if he thinks the decision to give the Rams and not the 49ers the extra day to get ready for Week 2 traces to his willingness to say when he thinks, Shanahan should say that, too.
