ORLANDO, Fla. — Despite finishing fourth in NFL MVP voting, quarterback Brock Purdy enters his third season as the 49th highest-paid player on the 49ers.
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He is locked into a salary of $1.1 million for the 2024 season. Next year — the first time his contract is allowed to be renegotiated — he can expect to see a huge pay increase.
“I think it’s a good problem when your quarterback is one of your highest-paid guys on your team and in the league,” 49ers CEO Jed York said Tuesday when NBC Sports Bay Area asked about Purdy’s future contract at the NFL Annual Meeting. “So, there’s a lot of planning that goes into it.”
The 49ers began preparing for Purdy’s inevitable pay increase this offseason with their pay-cut ultimatums to defensive tackle Arik Armstead and fullback Kyle Juszczyk.
Armstead declined and was released. Juszczyk agreed, and the 49ers saved $4 million on the salary cap.
The team could approach other high-priced players a year from now with similar requests in order to create cap space to account for Purdy’s expected big contract.
York said he trusts chief negotiator Paraag Marathe, general manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan to formulate the plan on roster and cap management decisions to prepare for the time when Purdy’s pay goes from the league minimum to among the NFL’s top-paid players.
“It’s what the market is,” York said. “Brock is going to ask for something that no one has ever asked for before. I don’t know how many players are making over $40 million [per year] as a quarterback right now.”
Twelve quarterbacks are playing under contracts that pay them annual averages of $40 million or more per season. Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow is the highest-paid player in the league at $55 million annually.
Five years ago, the 49ers signed Jimmy Garoppolo to a contract extension that averaged $27.5 million per season. He briefly was the highest-paid player in the league.
In 2018, the league’s salary cap was set at $177.2 million per team. This year, the cap rose to $255.4 million per team.
“You see the market has changed,” York said. “Whether I like it or not, that’s what the market is, and you have to accept the reality of the world.
“To me, the quarterback is the most important position, not just in football but in all of sports, and those guys should be paid a lot.”
