PALM BEACH, Fla. — Like general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan, Jed York is confident that his team will reach agreement with Brock Purdy on a lucrative contract extension. The 49ers owner even seemed to put the ball in Purdy’s court when speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning at the league’s annual meeting.
“I don’t negotiate contracts, but any conversations I’ve had with Brock personally have been great,” York said. “I feel good and when he’s ready we’ll sit down and finish it. It shouldn’t be that hard to do.”
York said the 49ers finalized the decision to pay Purdy big money around midseason of 2024 and began negotiating with the quarterback’s camp earlier this offseason. Although the 49ers struggled to a 6-11 record, Purdy still finished ranked No. 7 in QBR. He was No. 1 in 2023 and has been the NFL’s most efficient QB ever since joining the league in 2022.
“I think he is [a top-10 quarterback],” York said. “I think he’s great. Especially when you combine him with Kyle and what we have, he’s a heck of a quarterback and we want him here for a long, long time.”
York, speaking publicly for the first time during what has been — so far — an offseason of spending austerity, framed the 49ers’ financial workings around Purdy’s looming contract.
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“When you make the decision that you want to pay a quarterback that’s obviously been underpaid for his first three seasons in the NFL, when you make that change, you have to make sacrifices somewhere,” York said. “Teams go through different life cycles, and you’re in a life cycle now of still having a really good core of people, but some of those tangential pieces you have to address through the draft or through free agency at a lower expectation or a lower lever so you can pay your quarterback. And that’s where we are.”
On Monday, Lynch emphasized that the 49ers’ drop to No. 16 in cash spend is merely temporary. The team is anticipating a vault back to one of the top spots of the 2025 list as soon as Purdy’s deal — which will presumably include a large signing bonus that the 49ers will have to pay out immediately — hits the books.
York echoed that sentiment.
“Cost cutting just because we didn’t spend money in the first three days of free agency doesn’t mean that we’re prohibited from making trades, signing players, extending our own players,” York said. “And that’s always something we’re trying to do.”
Contract extensions for tight end George Kittle and even linebacker Fred Warner, who still has two years remaining on his deal, are possible this offseason.
The strategy is a relatively straightforward one: If the 49ers believe believe a core player has a significant amount of A-list football left ahead of him, they want to contractually re-commit to that player. But names like Purdy, Kittle, Warner, Trent Williams, Nick Bosa, and Christian McCaffrey can’t comprise an entire 53-man roster. And since the 49ers are bracing for an exponential increase in pay for Purdy, spending elsewhere must be streamlined to ensure long-term sustainability under the salary cap.
“I think my uncle played more of [an influential role in the 49ers’ offseason process] by instituting the salary cap through his spending,” York quipped, referring to former team owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr. The NFL instituted the cap in 1994, right at the tail end of a 13-year stretch that saw the 49ers spend lavishly on player salaries and win five Super Bowls.
Dynamics are different in this modern era, but a constant truth of football applies: This is a young man’s sport, and York believes the 49ers — the NFL’s oldest team by the end of 2024 — must more closely embrace that reality when it comes to filling the roster beyond their formidable veteran pillars.
The most significant one of those foundational pieces, from both a football and financial perspective, will be Purdy. And there’s a simple reason all of the 49ers’ workings are circling around the QB spot.
“You look at the [Mike] Nolan, [Mike] Singletary teams,” York said, invoking the tenures of past 49ers head coaches. “They had unbelievable defenses. But when you can’t put things together on the offensive side of the ball like we did when Jim [Harbaugh] came in, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have consistent play at the quarterback position.
“You want a young quarterback with a core of people, so you can continue to build around it. Ultimately, you want to find that quarterback who can be there for a long period of time.”
It’s clear that York and the 49ers believe they have precisely that in Purdy. Viewed through that lens, their offseason maneuvers are simple.
• The 49ers assumed 100-percent ownership of British soccer club Leeds United in 2024, but that hasn’t financially impacted the football operation. From a banking perspective, these two teams are operating from separate buckets. The 49ers’ planned acquisition of Scottish soccer team Rangers FC, which is still months away, also won’t impact the football team’s finances.
“Leeds is obviously under the umbrella, but those are completely separate from the 49ers,” York said. “Where we can tie brands together and sort of take our best practices of operating and things like that — but in terms of financials, they don’t overlap at all.”
• Shanahan spoke at the NFC coaches’ breakfast. He announced that 49ers’ tight ends coach Brian Fleury has been promoted to run-game coordinator. That role was previously held by offensive line coach Chris Foerster, who now holds a title of assistant head coach.
The 49ers ranked No. 20 in first-down run efficiency in 2024 and No. 31 in third-and-short rushing success rate. Although injuries at running back certainly contributed to those struggles, it’s clear that Shanahan has deemed problems were rooted beyond just that.
The 49ers’ first free-agent signing last month was tight end Luke Farrell, a blocking specialist. Shanahan said Farrell’s role is a necessary one for the 49ers to regain the rushing efficiency they enjoyed in 2023, when Charlie Woerner held down the blocking tight end role opposite Kittle.
• Shanahan also confirmed that the 49ers will bring in kicking competition for Jake Moody, who struggled after suffering a high ankle sprain in 2024. The team will likely sign a veteran kicker after the draft, although new special teams coordinator Brant Boyer and his assistant Colt Anderson have also been scouting rookie possibilities.
“As long as we bring in a guy who’s capable of taking that job, and Jake respects him, that’s what puts pressure on him because you’ve got to respect the guy you’re going against, and he does have to beat him out in practice,” Shanahan said. “When your job’s on the line doing something, going against someone who’s talented, you do feel that pressure. And I do believe if he can overcome that and beat out a capable guy, that’ll show us he’s ready for the season.”