Feb 25, 2026
3 min read
Adam Schefter reported on Tuesday that left tackle Trent Williams and the 49ers are “struggling to find a contract solution.” General manager John Lynch offered a more optimistic outlook.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- With 13 days remaining before the free agent window begins, the San Francisco 49ers have a big job they hope to complete soon: figuring out left tackle Trent Williams' contract situation.
As it stands, Williams, who is entering the final year of his contract, has a salary of $38.84 million, a base salary of $22.21 million and a $10 million option bonus in the coming weeks.This option added urgency to a mutually agreeable deal.
Williams and the Niners are "struggling to find a contractual solution," sources told Adam Schefter Tuesday.Not long after, Niners general manager John Lynch spoke to reporters at the NFL combine in Indianapolis and offered a more optimistic outlook.
"I will say that I met with Trent and his agent, Vincent Taylor, over the last few weeks and had a good, productive and important meeting," Lynch said.
The renegotiation of the deal, which takes place in the coming weeks, will give the Niners the price and certainty of moving into free agency.
At the end of the season, Williams expects the team to do some trickery with his contract.He said it could be in the form of an extension that would give him more guarantees and a shorter extension that would give the team some additional cap relief through 2026.
It sounds simple enough, but this isn't the first time the Niners and Williams have found it difficult — as Lynch said — to thread the needle on a deal that works for both parties.Like 2024, when Williams sat out 40 days of training camp in exchange for a lucrative contract extension, he has plenty of upside as he nears the end of his career.
At the time, Williams ultimately agreed to a three-year, $82.66 million deal that included a $48 million signing bonus.After signing the deal, Williams called it a "very difficult" contract to work out as he also wants to remain among the highest paid players in the NFL.
Since then, Williams has continued to play at or near that level, making it harder for the 49ers to figure out how much to pay him while he continues to take a yearly approach when it comes to playing.
Williams turns 38 on July 19 and has repeatedly said he wants to play until he's 40, meaning he and any contract with the Niners could be looking at 2026 and 2027.
Because Williams is still one of the best tight ends in the league — he won his 12th Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors in 2025 — the Niners don't have a clear replacement, and it's hard to imagine the 49ers moving on from him.If that happens, the Niners will only have to save $4.69 million and eat $34.15 million in dead money.
“I think we're on the right track and I know he's been a tremendous asset to our organization,” Lynch said.“We love him.I hope, and I shared this with Trent, that his name will be in the same list as the great players who played for the Niners, because he definitely fits into that category.”
While the Niners work through the Williams situation, a familiar face is also back to help them with personnel duties.Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who began his career with the Niners in research and development from 2013 to 2019 and spent the past four years as the Minnesota Vikings' general manager before being fired in January, is back on the team's personnel department, Lynch said.
According to Lynch, Adofo-Mensah called him shortly after the Vikings released him, and Lynch immediately told him he had a place in San Francisco if he wanted to come back.
"That evolved into more substantial conversations and we're bringing him back into the role of director of personnel," Lynch said."After the draft, I think we're hoping to give it more finality, but we're excited to have him back."
Lynch said Adofo-Mensah has since returned to the building and assisted.What his final role will be and whether Adofo-Mensah will be in the team for a long time will be determined later.
"Sometimes you do these things kind of on a temporary, let's just get through the draft and then we'll figure out exactly how we want to use them or what the permanent role might be if we can come to that. Or maybe something else comes his way," Lynch said.
In the meeting with reporters, Lynch also said the Niners had agreed to terms on a contract extension for long snapper Jon Weeks and that the team "does not plan" to use the franchise tag on kicker Eddy Pineiro but would continue to work on a new contract for him.
