Will the 49ers Play Hard Ball During Negotiations with Brock Purdy?
We could be witnessing a preview of the 49ers' upcoming contract negotiations with Brock Purdy next offseason.
Brandon Aiyuk currently is fighting for an extension and the 49ers are making his life difficult. They seem to be offering him a contract that reflects last year's wide receiver market, not this year's market, which has exploded. And they feel they have leverage to make him take less money because if he doesn't, they can force him to play out the final year of his rookie contract. And they feel he's replaceable because they're a run-first team, which is why they just drafted Ricky Pearsall in Round 1 -- he's Aiyuk's potential replacement in case they eventually trade him.
Which brings us to Purdy. If he wins the MVP and the Super Bowl, of course the 49ers gladly will give him whatever extension he wants. But if the 49ers fall short and he still wants to become one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL, will the 49ers play hard ball with him like they've played hard ball with Aiyuk?
The highest-paid quarterbacks currently earn roughly $55 million per season. By next year when the salary cap most likely will increase by more than 10 percent, the top quarterbacks probably will begin to earn roughly $65 million. What if that's what Purdy asks for while the 49ers offer him $55 million? Will the 49ers threaten to force him to play out the final year of his rookie deal if he doesn't meet them at their number?
Stay tuned.
GRANT COHN
Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.