The 49ers Took Yet Another Holdout Down to the Wire

It’s an NFL kickoff tradition: the 49ers agreeing to a new deal with a star player who had been holding out all summer.

On Tuesday, they brought standout offensive lineman Trent Williams back in the fold. The contract details are not yet finalized, but his agents wrote online that “Williams is headed to SF to finalize a new deal.” The 36-year-old had skipped all of training camp and the preseason.

It’s the second prominent Niners holdout to end this summer, as receiver Brandon Aiyuk agreed to a four-year, $120 million extension last week. Like Williams, Aiyuk spent most of the preseason away from the team. 

Williams signed a six-year, $138 million contract in 2021 that had $55 million guaranteed and paid roughly $23 million per year. Going into the season, the 11-time Pro Bowler was the sixth-highest paid tackle in the NFL, trailing Tristan Wirfs, the leader, by about $5 million annually. Despite his age, Williams still remains one of the league’s best linemen, and was fined $50,000 a day for his absences, which totaled just over $4 million. 

But the Niners should be used to it by now. The team has tended to average roughly one standout absence per preseason in recent years. A year ago, defensive end Nick Bosa, one of the NFL’s best pass-rushers and then the reigning Defensive Player of the Year agreed to a five-year, $170 million deal just four days before the season started, which made him the highest paid defensive player in league history. The deal ended a 43-day holdout and Bosa admitted his slow start to the 2023 season was partially due to the holdout. 

San Francisco both has a stacked roster that wants to get paid, and apparent willingness to stomach long, contentious negotiations under John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan. 

In 2022, wideout and return man Deebo Samuel had his own holdout, which ended with a three-year deal worth roughly $74 million. This summer, Samuel had advice for Aiyuk. 

“I know what it feels like to go through what he’s going through right now,” Samuel said in July. “The only thing I can do is just tell him is to keep his head up, things are gonna work out. Just day by day, like, it’s a long process—real long—it’s frustrating. All I can do is just tell him to keep his head up, be where his feet are, just continue to do the things he does for his communication on his end and their end, and hopefully, things just play out.”

While not identical to Samuel’s situation, former Niners quarterback Jimmy Garappolo had his own contract dispute in 2022 after the team drafted Trey Lance and named him starter over the veteran. Garappolo agreed to a restructured contract to stay with the team in late August but wasn’t present for the start of training camp. Ironically, that situation may play a role in the Niners’ next potential holdout. 

Lance wound up getting injured four games into the 2022 season, which cleared the path for Garappolo to start. He got hurt late in the season, forcing third-string Brock Purdy under center. 

Purdy led the Niners to the NFC championship game that year and the Super Bowl this past season and will enter the final year of his rookie contract in 2025, which pays just $1.1 million. Purdy isn’t eligible to sign an extension until 2025, when the NFL salary cap will likely rise, and all indications are the Niners plan to pay him. 

Recent history suggests it’s never that simple.