A wild post-win 49ers morning: Colton McKivitz re-signs, Kendrick Bourne returns

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Colton McKivitz and Trent Williams, the 49ers’ two bookending offensive tackles, were in a gregarious mood and locked in smiling conversation in the team’s locker room Sunday afternoon in Seattle.

The 49ers had just clawed their way to a victory over the Seahawks. It was about as big as a Week 1 win can be for the team. But it was unusual to see McKivitz and Williams so relaxed and sharing that moment for so long. Postgame road locker rooms are typically frenetic places. There’s a plane to catch, after all.

It turns out they had news to celebrate beyond the 17-13 win. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Monday that McKivitz and the 49ers agreed to a three-year, $45 million contract extension that includes $27 million guaranteed.

We can call it the Vallejo Street Victory for two reasons.

First, that’s an homage to the San Francisco hills where McKivitz trained this past offseason.

And second, it’s a reflection of the surprising win-win that the 49ers and McKivitz, 29, were able to strike entering this season.

There’s a severe shortage of competent offensive tackles in the NFL, so it was assumed McKivitz would want to wait until his free agency in 2026 to cash out on a deal worth at least $20 million annually. Tampa Bay right tackle Luke Goedeke, for example, signed a four-year extension worth up to $90 million — or $22.5 million annually — just last week. This past offseason, Jaylon Moore — McKivitz’s former backup with the 49ers — reached a deal worth $15 million annually with the Kansas City Chiefs (and Moore didn’t even start Week 1 this season).

But McKivitz now isn’t slated to reach free agency until 2029 at the earliest. This agreement awards McKivitz — who’d been scheduled to receive only $4.5 million in 2025 — earlier financial security at the beginning of a physically brutal NFL season.

The 49ers, meanwhile, have a tackle under contract at $15 million annually — a bargain rate in the long term, no matter how it’s sliced.

That number ranks No. 13 among right tackles. McKivitz, who surged from the 4th to the 57th percentile in pass-blocking efficiency among all tackles from 2023 to 2024, is on the type of upward trajectory that suggests his production might even outpace his pay moving forward.

The 37-year-old Williams, meanwhile, is under contract only through 2026 on the other side. Although Williams recently said he wants to play three more seasons, the All-Pro’s advancing age means the 49ers must move now to begin securing their future at the tackle position.

The NFL Draft is an obvious talent source, but ready-made tackles are generally scooped up early on — before the 49ers even pick. The team developed McKivitz over multiple seasons after selecting him out of West Virginia down in the fifth round of the 2020 draft.

It took McKivitz several years to round into the form he has reached today. He replaced Mike McGlinchey, who signed with the Denver Broncos for $17.5 million annually in 2023, as the starting right tackle that season. Improvement has come in droves since.

Now, the 49ers are simultaneously rewarding homegrown development and enjoying the fruits of that labor. They have McKivitz extended at a friendly rate — one of two major weekend victories that lit the locker room up with wider-than-usual smiles.

The 49ers have reunited with an old friend. Per Schefter, they’ve re-signed wide receiver Kendrick Bourne to a one-year deal worth up to $5 million.

The team had been pursuing Bourne for more than a week. He visited the facility Sept. 1. The 49ers offered Bourne a contract, but he chose to sit out Week 1 and continue mulling his options. A shoulder injury to Jauan Jennings — he’s undergoing an MRI on Monday — has presumably increased the 49ers’ need for a veteran receiver of Bourne’s caliber.

Bourne, 30, played the first four seasons of his career for the 49ers. He signed with the New England Patriots in 2021 and was effectively replaced by Jennings as the 49ers’ third wideout.

Now, in a full-circle signing, Bourne is back with the 49ers to help replace Jennings — at least for the short term.