This piece originally appeared in our twice-weekly sports newsletter The Dime. Sign up here to receive this and other email newsletters from The Standard.
After a star player signs a new contract, teams love sharing videos and photos of athletes with a fancy pen in hand and a smile beaming across their face as they finalize these landmark agreements.
If the 49ers and Warriors shared visuals of their most important deals this summer, they might be better off posting close-up shots of handshakes in dimly lit rooms.
In the world of sports, where high-profile negotiations are often tense, cumbersome, and even antagonistic, two Bay Area franchises dealing with unresolved contract disputes appear to have successfully navigated other tricky roster decisions with winks, nods, and good old-fashioned trust.
The Warriors are the only NBA team that has yet to make an official transaction this summer, but for the last two months, it’s been widely assumed that veteran center Al Horford and guard De’Anthony Melton will play key roles for the 2025-2026 team. Neither Horford nor Melton has officially signed a deal, but their contractual dominoes are expected to fall immediately after there’s movement on Jonathan Kuminga’s future.
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The 49ers, meanwhile, released veteran punter Thomas Morstead on Tuesday when the team cut its roster from 90 to 53 players. Brock Purdy would be worth a heck of a lot more than $265 million if his offense was so good that Morstead’s services aren’t of use this season.
Immediately after the 49ers “finalized” their initial roster, The Standard’s David Lombardi provided clarity, noting the move to release Morstead offered the team some initial flexibility to execute other matters of business such as keeping 10 offensive linemen and 11 defensive linemen around.
Twenty-four hours after the roster cutdown, Morstead was added back to the 53-man roster. The veteran was technically free to sign elsewhere, but there was never any doubt about who will be lining up in punt formation in Seattle next Sunday.
John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan didn’t stop the handshakes at the punter position, either. The 49ers released veteran receiver Russell Gage, but never intended to keep him out of the fold for long. By mid-day on Thursday, Gage had also rejoined the roster and could play a significant role in Week 1 if Jauan Jennings, who definitely wants a photoshoot with a fancy pen, isn’t ready to play.
At any point, Melton or Horford could decide they’re tired of waiting for the Warriors to finalize their contracts. Morstead could have theoretically tested the market, and Gage could have asked his agent to survey teams interested in a veteran receiver before rejoining the 49ers.
Instead, everyone appears to have the utmost confidence that temporary uncertainty is a small price to pay for long-term happiness. In fact, some players might eventually tell us that there’s no uncertainty at all. They know where they’ll be spending the upcoming season, even if the exact moment when the ink will spill out over paper remains a bit fuzzy.
All of these maneuvers carry risk because the ongoing sagas involving Kuminga and Jennings could test the strength of other backroom deals that might be unknown to the public.
After all, the Giants once had an agreement in place with Carlos Correa, and we all know how that ended.
Good luck to all parties involved. You might need it.