The NFL announced on Friday that this season’s salary cap will be $301.2 million per team this year, up from $279.2 million in 2025, as the league’s cap continues to grow at a high rate.
As a result, the San Francisco 49ers are projected to have approximately $38.9 million in cap space this offseason, according to OverTheCap, with room to grow depending on several roster moves.
Earlier this offseason, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported that the NFL informed teams it was projected the 2026 salary
cap would be in the range of $301.2 million to $305.7 million per team this season. It ultimately fell on the shorter side at $301.2 million, representing a 7.9 percent increase year-by-year.
In 2025, the salary cap ended up being higher than expected, with teams expecting the cap to be in the range of $265 million to $275 million before the number ended up at $279.2 million, representing a 9.3 percent increase year-by-year.
When looking at the 49ers, there are a couple of ways to increase their cap space, with a Trent Williams extension/restructure being the easiest way to do so. Currently, the star left tackle holds a cap hit of $38.8 million for the 2026 season and is on the final year of his deal.
Earlier this week, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the 49ers and Williams were struggling to find a contractual solution ahead of the new league year, which could result in him potentially hitting free agency.
But general manager John Lynch didn’t seem worried, sharing at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine that he and Williams’s agent have had ‘really good’ meetings over the past few weeks and believed the two sides were on the same page.
So it seems like a solution will be coming there at some point, which should lower Williams’s cap hit for the 2026 season and increase the cap room for the 49ers.
The 49ers could also look to restructure Nick Bosa’s contract for the first time since handing him a five-year, $170 million extension in 2023. He is currently slated to hold a $41.6 million cap hit in 2026, but that increases to $52.03 million in 2027.
The other big expected move is the handling of Brandon Aiyuk’s contract, as the 49ers voided the guarantees in the wideout’s contract last offseason and are expected to move off him this offseason. That should free up some cap space for the team, although it’s not known exactly how much that would be. Prior to the voided guarantees, Aiyuk was scheduled to hold a $14.6 million cap hit in 2026.
The good news is that there aren’t any other major extensions needed for the 49ers apart from Williams. San Francisco has Bosa, Brock Purdy, Fred Warner, George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Deommodore Lenoir, and Colton McKivitz locked up for at least the next two seasons, with a majority extended beyond that as well.
So we’ll see how aggressive the 49ers are with their newfound cap space after spending most of their money last offseason extending their core players.
