The NFL on Friday announced the official salary cap number for the 2024 season, and with it the dollar amounts for the various restricted free agent tenders.
Restricted free agency is for players who’ve only accrued three seasons entering the free agent market. For the 49ers only one player, wide receiver Jauan Jennings, fits that description this offseason.
In restricted free agency teams have a handful of RFA tenders they can place on a player before he is allowed to test the free agent waters. Those tenders are full-guaranteed one-year deals. Here’s a rundown of each of the options San Francisco can explore with Jennings, and how much it would cost:
Non-tender
If a team doesn’t tender a restricted free agent, they become an unrestricted free agent.
Cost: $0
Right of first refusal
This tender simply gives the player’s team the right to match any offer sheet they get in free agency.
Cost: $2,985,000
Original-round tender
Jennings wasn’t drafted so the 49ers won’t use this one. It means the team signing the player to an offer sheet will have to provide draft compensation that matches the round the player was selected in.
Cost: $3,116,000
Second-round tender
If the 49ers tender Jennings, this is probably where they’ll land. While a second-round tender is pricier than a ROFR, it requires the team that signs Jennings to compensate the 49ers with a second-round pick if San Francisco doesn’t match the offer sheet.
Cost: $6,822,000
First-round tender
It’s the same as a second-round tender, but more expensive for the player’s original team and with a first-round pick as compensation.
Cost: $7,390,000
Extension
This is another place the 49ers could land with their 2020 seventh-round pick. Jennings is a good player and valuable as a receiver and as a run blocker. It wouldn’t be a surprise if San Francisco wants to extend him a couple years instead of paying him on a one-year RFA tender and risking losing him in unrestricted free agency next offseason. With the spiking salary cap, they could find room to extend him without putting themselves in too much of a bind cap-wise.
Cost: TBD
