© Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
For months, 49ers fans regurgitated the team’s need for a dynamic edge rusher. With Dee Ford now on the roster, they have one. The thinking was that pairing a Pro Bowl edge presence, such as Ford, alongside Pro Bowl defensive tackle DeForest Buckner would put opposing offensive lines in a bind.
What takes precedence moving forward is retaining Buckner, who will enter the fourth year of his NFL career in 2019. He’s coming off his best season after recording career-highs in sacks (12) and tackles for loss (17) in 2018. Buckner has missed one game in three seasons since the 49ers selected him with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2016 draft. His career has steadily ascended, culminating in his first Pro Bowl appearance in 2018.
The 49ers can enter contract negotiations with Buckner this year. He is slated to become a free agent after the upcoming season.
Back in December, he deflected questions about a contract extension, but he acknowledged it was discussed and would resurface in the coming months.
“I talked to my agent the past couple weeks,” Buckner said. “He’s going to come out in the offseason. We are going to talk a little more.”
The NFL offseason has been here for about three months, and the 49ers have been active on the player market, signing six free agents and trading for Ford. Re-signing Buckner is the next major box to check. The team’s brass has reiterated its desire to reward Buckner with a new deal at some point in the not-so-distant future.
49ers’ salary-cap situation
Despite spending more than $53 million in free agency against the 2019 cap, the 49ers are set up well for the future. They have consistently front-loaded contracts and filled them with incentives to protect the team if the player does not perform or stay healthy.
The 49ers have $34.5 million in remaining 2019 cap space, the fourth-most in the NFL. Spotrac projects the 49ers will have $29.1 million in 2020 cap space, but they will benefit from the rising salary cap and rollover from their 2019 cap room. Subtract about $9 million the team will likely distribute to its 2019 draft picks, and the 49ers should have somewhere between $60 million to $70 million in cap space — similar to where they started this year.
George Kittle is the only current 49ers player, aside from Buckner, likely to demand a massive contract in the coming years. Kittle will be a free agent in 2021. As it currently stands, the 49ers are in position to retain both stars.
Buckner’s current contract status
Buckner’s rookie deal is worth more than $18 million over four years. He counts for $5.8 million against the 2019 cap — cost-friendly for arguably the team’s best player.
The 49ers could go a couple different routes to extend Buckner’s contract. The first, and very likely, course of action is exercising Buckner’s fifth-year option in May, extending him into the 2020 season. He would make around $15 million for one year if that’s the case. This is the short-term option.
The team-friendly move would be to sign Buckner to a long-term deal before the market price inevitably increases as time passes. In Buckner’s case, holding out will likely result in a larger payday. Unless he regresses — which seems unlikely, considering his upward career trend and the 49ers’ improved edge presence — he will carry a hefty price tag regardless.
“I’m sure it won’t be cheap,” John Lynch said on KNBR back in December.
The market
Aaron Donald has deservedly inflated the market price for defensive tackles. Fewer than two weeks before the 2018 season started, which ended in Donald’s second straight Defensive Player of the Year Award, he signed a six-year, $135-million extension with the Los Angeles Rams. His $22.5 million in yearly salary is $5.4 million than the next-richest defensive tackle, Philadelphia’s Fletcher Cox.
Three days before Donald signed his deal, Geno Atkins, a six-time Pro Bowler, signed a four-year, $65.3 million contract over four years with the Cincinnati Bengals. Mega-deals like these only help Buckner. Outside of Donald and Cox, the five-most lucrative contracts belonging to defensive tackles range from $16.7 million to $15.1 million in yearly average. Buckner will demand at least that kind of money, and likely on the higher end of the spectrum.
It’s never easy to predict 49ers contracts because Paraag Marathe generally front-loads the guaranteed money in the first year and rounds out the deal with incentives. But the 49ers have a propensity to reward their cornerstones. Last year, Jimmy Garoppolo signed a five-year deal with $74.1 million guaranteed. Ford’s contract includes $33.4 million in guaranteed money. Buckner will get his guaranteed money, too.
With the exception of drafting the right player with the No. 2 overall pick this month, retaining Buckner to a multi-year extension will be arguably the 49ers’ most important transaction over the next two years. With all of the talk about bolstering the edge rush, retaining Buckner will help maximize it.