Kurtenbach: Trent Williams is back. The 49ers’ swagger is, too

SANTA CLARA — Trent Williams will be getting his locker back soon.

His second locker, that is.

Williams, the All-Pro, future Hall of Fame left tackle, was back in the Bay Tuesday after six weeks of holding out and six days before the start of the 2024 regular season.

And when he was gone, he was downgraded to a single stall in the Levi’s Stadium locker room, as if he were an ordinary player.

Williams, who last year had a palatial, two, sometimes three-locker piece of real estate, might have renegotiated $48 million worth of guaranteed money on his new deal, but he forgot to add the second locker back to negotiations.

“I guess I have to earn it back,” he joked Tuesday.

Certainly such arrangements can be made in the days and weeks to come. Sorry, Malik Mustapha, but you’re probably going to have to move your stuff soon.

While the locker situation is a punchline, like with any good joke, it highlights a truth.

Why did Williams have two lockers while everyone else had one?

And why did no one — not a soul — complain about it?

It’s because Williams is the most important player on the team — not only on the field but also in the locker room.

And for a team whose vibes have been downright atrocious for weeks, there was a new levity at play with the big fella back with the team.

Williams is a double dose of Tylenol for a team mired in a deep, ugly Super Bowl hangover.

Even amid the frightening Ricky Pearsall situation, the result of which general manager John Lynch called “miraculous” multiple times Tuesday, for the first time in a long time, there are reasons for optimism with the Niners.

You only had to look at the smiling man at the single locker to understand why.

One reason — perhaps the singular reason — football resonates so strongly with us is because there’s still a primal aspect to the game. Forget your schemes and fancy moves, this sport is still all about speed and power. And Williams is a frighteningly perfect vessel of both.

You’ve probably seen the video of the Browns and 49ers scrapping on the field before a game last year. Both teams get in their licks and barks, only for Williams to step in the middle of the fracas, shoving receiver Elijah Moore out of the camera frame.

The fight was over. Heads cooled quickly.

The Browns just stood there — six, seven, eight of them — refusing to try the man nicknamed Silverback.

There’s a reason Williams is the first guy out of the tunnel when the Niners play big games. You can’t help but feel confident going into battle when that guy is on your team. The giant heads the line.

Yes, the Niners have arguably more talent than any team in the NFL. And no, leadership is not an issue for this team, either.

But even the team leaders look up to Williams. Consciously or not, the Niners were held in limbo during Williams’ holdout, not sure if they’d have to recalibrate seemingly everything.

There are levels to excellence and greatness, and Williams is rightly perceived as the alpha of all alphas

And why not? Behind the scenes, in that locker room, Williams is a teddy bear. That intimidating figure on the field is just an alter ego. Williams has time, and typically a smile, for everyone. He’s no locker room lawyer, but if you have a football question you don’t want to take to a coach, you can run it by him.

But while Williams was willing to hold out for the long run — this is a man who stands on his principles — he was also craving being around a football team again.

Williams waited out the 49ers in Houston. He said that being there, watching NFL Network’s training camp tour put him in “dang near in a depression.”

“It lets me know I’m still hungry,” Williams said. “Think of a kid not being able to go out to recess and watching everyone through the window.”

“It was some really up-and-down times… I just needed that camaraderie. I wanted to see my boys.”

And they needed to see him in uniform to feel like this season had really started.

It was fair for the Niners to have felt slightly rattled over the last few weeks. They were looking at the calendar, staring down Sept. 9, and not knowing if Williams would be there to lead the way.

There’s security in having The Man — a true leader of men — on your team.

Security for the quarterback, certainly. Security for the run game — you can always go left. Security when you get into a pregame fight and need someone to end it.

Williams,, more than anyone on the roster, gives this team its swagger—a necessary ingredient for any season, but particularly one in which only a Super Bowl win will do.

And now that he’s secure with his contract, that swagger appears to be back, too.