How the 49ers spend their cap dollars: From Brock Purdy to Bryce Huff

Behold the financial result of the 49ers offseason, which might seem paradoxical in nature:

Here’s the real kicker: The 49ers also carry the NFL’s most dead money — more than $90 million — on their books as this 2025 season approaches.

While it might seem that more spending and more dead money would translate to less available cap space, the 49ers have created an alternate reality by embracing the brave new world of aggressive deferrals.

They and the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL’s defending Super Bowl champions, are pushing cap hits into future void years at the most liberal rates in NFL history. They’re surfing the wave of the rising salary cap, and the backloading of deals — see the ones the 49ers just executed with Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Fred Warner — allows for it.

That’s the context for our annual financial check-in on the 49ers’ roster. With the offseason’s flurry of moves in the books, it’s a good time to visualize how the 49ers have split up their salary-cap liabilities, which total about $300 million, to ensure that they’re on track to carry over plenty of unused space that’ll be used to cover deferred costs in future seasons.

Takeaway No. 1: The 49ers’ dead money bill of about $92 million accounts for nearly a third of their 2025 cap spending.

It’s massive, yes, and much of it comes as a result of this offseason’s roster purge (the trade of receiver Deebo Samuel, for example, incurred a whopping dead money charge of about $31 million). But it’s vital to understand that the 49ers pre-planned for a large portion of this bill — often years in advance.

When a team pushes money into void years, it’s essentially managing the salary cap with a credit card (one that charges neither interest nor late fees). There’s an implicit recognition that money paid to players but deferred against the cap must eventually hit the cap. By rule, it’ll accelerate into a dead money hit once a player’s contract is terminated.

The 49ers have been more than happy with this setup, which is explained in more detail here. It certainly hasn’t hampered their spending power, as evidenced by their surge to No. 1 on the list below.

Cumulative annual average value (AAV) of contracts per team

Courtesy Spotrac

But, thanks to backloading we’ve discussed, the 49ers rank all the way down at No. 27 in active money hitting the salary cap this season. They’re No. 27 in offensive cap spend and No. 24 in defensive cap spend.

Here’s a closer look at where each position group ranks in terms of cap investment.

All spending in the second column comes in millions.

The 49ers’ biggest raw cap expenditures for 2025 are directed at the defensive line (17.4%) and offensive line (13.3%), but those are big position groups. Relatively speaking, linebacker (No. 5 among NFL teams at 7.1%) is the largest chunk.

Notably, quarterback — even with Purdy’s new contract on the books — remains a small part of the pie (4.2%). That’s thanks to the compromising spirit of the QB’s deal.

We can zoom further in with a position-by-position look at the 49ers’ 2025 cap allocations.

Players on roster: 4
Cap hit (NFL rank): $12.5 million (No. 27)
NFL average: $28.2 million

Purdy’s deal averages $53 million annually but counts only $9.1 million against the 2025 cap. Purdy’s willingness to take a $40 million signing bonus — significantly smaller than the $73 million signing bonus the Detroit Lions awarded Jared Goff, for example — allowed for this.

The 49ers saw the QB room account for more than $20 million in annual cap damage back when Jimmy Garoppolo was with the team. They remain at about half that now. Though Purdy’s deal is set to spike in future years, a renegotiation around 2027 — both sides are incentivized to shoot for this — would allow continued cap surfing for the 49ers.

Players on roster: 7
Cap hit (NFL rank): $14.9 million (No. 13)
NFL average: $11.7 million

Unsurprisingly, Christian McCaffrey ($8.4 million) accounts for the majority of spending in the backfield. There is an interesting twist here with fullback Kyle Juszczyk, whom the 49ers cut and then re-signed in March. Because of the release, $3.6 million of Juszczyk’s deferred money hits as dead money this season. His new contract then accounts for a $2.5 million 2025 cap hit.

No harm, no foul to the 49ers: They were going to have to pay that original $3.6 million anyway. They’re just now paying it early. The whole Juszczyk maneuver serves as a good illustration of how comfortable the 49ers are working with dead money. And because unused cap space carries over from season to season, they have every reason to be comfortable.

Players on roster: 12
Cap hit (NFL rank): $22.4 million (No. 19)
NFL average: $31.1 million

Brandon Aiyuk’s injury triggered injury guarantees in his deal, making it an inefficient proposition for the 49ers — at least right now. But a return to form can make that all water under the bridge. For 2025, Aiyuk has a $9.9 million cap hit. And Jauan Jennings — $4.3 million — may be the best bargain on the 49ers’ roster. His contract is instrumental in keeping the 49ers under the league average salary-cap output at receiver.

Players on roster: 6
Cap hit (NFL rank): $19 million (No. 9)
NFL average: $15.8 million

The 49ers reduced Kittle’s 2025 cap hit by over $10 million through his new deal, which features one of their most ambitious backloading efforts yet. Even though the star tight end is only under contract through 2029, he has cap impacts deferred all the way through 2033. Whenever Kittle’s 49ers tenure finally ends, all remaining hits will accelerate to hit the cap as dead money.

Players on roster: 16
Cap hit (NFL rank): $39.7 million (No. 21)
NFL average: $51.3 million

Trent Williams — with a $21.7 million cap hit — has the NFL’s most valuable contract for an offensive lineman, but he’s the only player that the 49ers are spending big money on up front. Right tackle Colton McKivitz’s 2025 cap number is only $5.3 million, marking one of the better bargains in football. But it seems impossible for the 49ers to retain McKivitz beyond 2025 at that rate (Jaylon Moore, his former backup, signed for $15 million annually with the Kansas City Chiefs).

That means the 49ers must prepare to spend either big cap or draft capital for the tackle position over the next calendar year.

Players on roster: 16
Cap hit (NFL rank): $52 million (No. 15)
NFL average: $46.9 million

It seems fitting that the 49ers’ trade for edge rusher Bryce Huff and $7.7 million of his 2025 contract pushed the team back into the upper half of D-line cap bills. The 49ers had previously been top-five spenders for this position group, but they’d eased off the gas pedal considerably here prior to April’s NFL Draft. In fact, the 49ers even cut pricy defensive tackle Javon Hargrave — incurring more than $22 million in dead money that’ll hit the books between 2025 and 2026.

Heavy reinvestment began with the drafting of defensive end Mykel Williams ($5.7 million 2025 cap hit) in the first round, continued with two other D-line selections and wrapped up with the trade for Huff. Nick Bosa, whose $20.4 million cap hit balloons to more than $40 million in 2026, will be a good candidate for a contract restructure in the next cycle.

Players on roster: 9
Cap hit (NFL rank): $21.1 million (No. 5)
NFL average: $31.9 million

Warner’s new deal lowered his 2025 number from around $28 million to $16.1 million. The 49ers also didn’t re-sign Dre Greenlaw, saving them a significant chunk of money here. Spending, though, remains relatively high at this position — and an indication of how seriously the 49ers take the linebacker spot. They’re now hungry for rookie deal efficiency, which is cost-controlled, from either Dee Winters or Nick Martin — or both.

Players on roster: 14
Cap hit (NFL rank): $19.7 million (No. 29)
NFL average: $42.1 million

The new contract for cornerback Deommodore Lenoir, finalized last November, has already aged remarkably well for the 49ers. Lenoir’s 2025 cap hit is only $5.8 million. Because Charvarius Ward signed with the Indianapolis Colts, the 49ers no longer have an expensive counterpart for Lenoir. Renardo Green ($1.5 million), Upton Stout ($1.1 million), and veteran signee Tre Brown ($1.7 million) make this room younger and much more cost-efficient.

From a fiscal sense, the 49ers are trending back toward their 2019 defensive peak. They invested heavily in the front seven then but ranked much lower in secondary spending. A similar pattern has now returned.

Players on roster: 4
Cap hit (NFL rank): $3.8 million (No. 28)
NFL average: $7 million

Only three players will qualify for the 53-man roster, as kicker Greg Joseph is currently aboard to compete with Jake Moody. The 49ers are paying dead money tabs for punter Mitch Wishnowsky ($3.3 million) and Taybor Pepper ($150,000), so — for all intents and purposes — their specialist spending hit is higher than No. 28.

But coordinator Brant Boyer wanted new players in those key spots, and the 49ers were willing to oblige him — even if it meant footing a bigger bill.