Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m really looking forward to the resumption of the NBA playoffs tonight.


In today’s SI:AM:

💰

Niners’ spending spree

🏈

CFB rivalry in doubt

⛳

Sergio misses U.S. Open

John Lynch opened the checkbook

The San Francisco 49ers are keeping their core together.

In the last three weeks, the Niners have reached agreement on contract extensions with three top performers: tight end George Kittle, quarterback Brock Purdy, and linebacker Fred Warner. Here’s a breakdown of the deals:

  • Purdy: Five years, $265 million ($176 million guaranteed)
  • Kittle: Four-year deal worth $76.4 million with $40 million guaranteed
  • Warner: Three years, $63 million ($56.7 million guaranteed)

Purdy’s looming extension had been one of the biggest stories of the offseason. The Niners had benefited tremendously from having a starting-caliber quarterback not only on a rookie deal but a
seventh-round
Purdy’s first agreement, scheduled to end following the conclusion of the 2025 season, compensated him with under $1 million each year.

Purdy’s deal is an interesting one. It’s a big contract, to be sure, but it isn’t a record-breaking one.

Albert Breer referred to it as “equitable for all,”

meaning Purdy gets a big raise, and the Niners get stability at quarterback without having to make him the highest-paid QB in the league. (If you want all the details on Purdy’s contract, including how the money is broken down annually,

Breer has the full breakdown

.)

Purdy’s contract is the biggest of the three, but you could argue that retaining Kittle and Warner was just as important for the franchise. Kittle is an all-time great tight end. His 7,380 receiving yards are the second-most by a tight end in the first eight years of a player’s career in NFL history (behind only Travis Kelce). Like Purdy, Kittle was set to become a free agent after this season, and so retaining one of Purdy’s favorite targets has compounding benefits for the young quarterback.

Warner’s contract runs through the 2026 season; however, the Niners moved swiftly to keep hold of one of the most outstanding inside linebackers in the league. Following his selection as a First-Team All-Pro for four out of the last five years, Warner has secured the title of the highest-paid linebacker in the NFL.

It’s a lot of money for the Niners to spend in such quick succession, but the team had plenty of salary cap space to work with. Kittle’s extension, which was completed in late April, actually lowered his cap hit. Even after signing this trio of stars, Spotrac estimates that the Niners have $43.2 million in cap space, second in the NFL behind the New England Patriots.

The biggest reason that the Niners have so much cap space is that they lost numerous players in free agency without signing many free agents themselves. Former San Francisco players signed free-agent deals worth a total of $319 million this offseason, while the team spent just $56 million on signing free agents. That difference of $264 million is the largest free-agency deficit in NFL history,

according to CBS Sports

Noteworthy departures from the 49ers during this spring consist of linebacker Dre Greenlaw, defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, offensive guard Aaron Banks, and cornerback Charvarius Ward. Additionally, San Francisco engaged in a trade, sending star wide receiver Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders as part of a cost-cutting maneuver.

Given the amount of talent the Niners lost this offseason, it was important for them to avoid further attrition by keeping Purdy, Kittle and Warner. Doing so by wrapping up negotiations this early in the offseason is also significant, considering how talks with players like Trent Williams and Brandon Aiyuk in recent years dragged deep into training camp and led to holdouts. This time around, the Niners were able to avoid the distraction and tension of a holdout. The question for the Niners is whether they’ve done enough this offseason to avoid a repeat of last year’s disappointing, injury-ravaged season.

The cream of Sports Illustrated

The top five…

… took place in baseball yesterday evening:

5. The swing-and-a-miss by the Twins’ newcomer Carson McCusker that resulted in his bat flying

flying all the way to the outfield

. In fairness, it was a rainy night in Minneapolis and the bat was wet. “I just started laughing,”

McCusker said later

. “And I turned to the umpire and said, ‘You ever see a bat go that far?’ He said: ‘No, I haven’t. That’s the furthest I’ve ever seen.’”

4.

This cinematic angle

of Kyle Schwarber’s 466-foot home run.

3. Jesús Sánchez’s

walk-off hit for the Marlins

. Six of Miami’s 19 wins this season have come on walk-offs.

2. Shohei Ohtani’s

MLB-leading 17th homer

of the season—an opposite-field shot on a backdoor slider.

1.

A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz’s tag

just nicked a runner. The umpire’s official explanation of the call after a replay review was, “The runner’s sleeve was tagged, barely.”

This article was originally published on

www.si.com

as

SI:AM | The Niners Are Paying Everybody

.