Inman: 49ers’ Trent Williams is next millionaire on to-do list before season
SANTA CLARA – Ladies and gentlemen, start your short-attention spans as we clean out our 49ers notebook a week before the season starts:
— So begins Brock Purdy’s 365-day hold-in until he resets the quarterback market and makes everyone else’s contract irrelevant. Too soon for sarcasm?
— Next millionaire up: Trent Williams, who has accrued over $4.3 million in fines amid his contract holdout. The 49ers made him the NFL’s highest-paid offensive lineman three years ago, and he responded by making All-Pro three straight seasons as a team captain.
— Can they get Williams done, plus extend a cornerback (Deommodore Lenoir, Charvarius Ward) and guard Aaron Banks, then save pennies for Purdy next spring/summer/fall? “Not many cap pennies left,” answered a team source.
— Williams has kept quiet since the Super Bowl loss. Others have not.
“Everybody knows Trent was a captain, a Hall of Famer, a big dog of the team, and damn near everybody is scared of him,” Ward said.
“I will never fall short on my praise of Trent and what he’s meant to this place,” general manager John Lynch added. “It was a great day, when I got that call from (then-Washington coach Ron) Rivera saying that they would do that (2020 draft-day) trade. He’s been incredible since he’s been here. We value Trent, we love Trent, we want Trent here. And I’m hopeful that can happen soon.”
—Brandon Aiyuk ultimately mined the 49ers for a $120 million, four-year extension Thursday. How to celebrate that paydirt? Attend San Jose State’s season-opening win and chat up Sacramento State quarterback Kaiden Bennett, who grew up in the Reno/Sparks area like Aiyuk.
— Go back to Sept. 17, 2021. The 49ers were completing their West Virginia layover after a Week 1 win at Detroit in which Aiyuk wasn’t in the starting lineup but rather in the doghouse.
“I’ve already started to understand in this league that it’s never a steady path to the top,” Aiyuk said after that practice at The Greenbrier Resort. “You’re going to have really high moments, low moments. But I think it’s all about how you refocus, rebalance, and get back on track afterward.”
— Aiyuk, who wears jersey No. 11, agreed to his contract 11 days before the 49ers’ opener. The season ends with the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, or 2/9, so for more numerology sake: 2 + 9 = 11.
— The trade overtures and contract proposals Aiyuk rebuffed, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, involved the New England Patriots at $32 million annually, the Cleveland Browns ($30 million), and, finally, the Pittsburgh Steelers ($27.7 million).
Alas, the 49ers’ ponied up $30 million per year through their Mergers & Aiyukisitions department.
— Four options? That’s appropriate. Aiyuk, in a March 2023 post on X/Twitter, prided himself on his first 1,000-yard season “as the 4th option in a run-first option. I’m as real as it get.”
— Aiyuk tallied 25 receiving touchdowns over his first four seasons; Jerry Rice had 49. Ah, but each scored four rushing touchdowns.
— Purdy has thrown nine touchdown passes to Aiyuk. They need 76 more to catch Steve Young and Rice; 46 more to catch Joe Montana and Rice.
— Purdy has 13 touchdown passes to George Kittle, 10 to Christian McCaffrey, and seven to Deebo Samuel, among others. In the playoffs, Purdy’s six scoring strikes have gone to six different receivers, including a 6-yarder to AIyuk in the NFC Championship win over Detroit, just after his 51-yard, ladybug-luck catch.
— Purdy has played in 25 regular-season games. If he appears in all 17 games this season, he’ll be one shy of Elvis Grbac for 10th-most by a 49ers quarterback. John Brodie ranks first with 201.
— McCaffrey, after a calf strain, hasn’t practiced in four weeks heading into his NFL rushing-title defense. Eleven players in NFL history have repeated, including the 49ers’ Joe “The Jet” Perry in 1954. More recent encores: Derrick Henry (2020), LaDainian Tomlinson (2007), Edgerrin James (2000), Barry Sanders (1997). So, too, did O.J. Simpson, in both 1973 and ’76.
— McCaffrey, in rushing for a career-high 1,459 yards last season, averaged 5.4 yards per carry, same as Frank Gore in 1995 with a 49ers’ record 1,695 yards.
— Kittle is 49 receptions shy of passing Dwight Clark and Roger Crag for third-most in 49ers’ history behind Rice and Terrell Owens, the latter of whom left upon 2004 contract drama that rivaled Aiyuk’s.
— Nick Bosa, with 55 ½ sacks, is 13 shy of Charley Haley for second-most behind Bryant Young’s franhise record. Bosa played a season-low 56 percent of the defensive snaps in last season’s opener, after sitting out training camp.
— No word yet on AIyuk’s potential workload. That could come Tuesday when the 49ers reconvene for practice, and for perhaps Aiyuk’s first news conference in seven months since the Super Bowl aftermath.