The San Francisco 49ers might be golden heading into Week 1 after all.
As their regular-season opener against the New York Jets on ‘Monday Night Football’ approaches, the reigning NFC champions are on the verge of finalizing a contract extension with All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams, according to his agency, Elite Loyalty Sports.
Williams, formerly the league’s highest-paid offensive lineman and widely regarded as its premier left tackle, had dropped to sixth in terms of average annual salary ($23 million per) over the past year. He held out of training camp seeking a new deal after tackles Tristan Wirfs, Penei Sewell and Christian Darrisaw overtook him on the pay scale during the offseason. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Wirfs is currently the best-compensated blocker at $28.1 million annually after getting a five-year extension worth $140.6 million.
The 49ers had had competing priorities in recent weeks, yet finally reached an extension with wideout Brandon Aiyuk last Thursday, bringing his ‘hold-in’ to an end.
Now Williams is set to rejoin the fold not a week before the Niners initiate their latest attempt to win a record-tying sixth Super Bowl. And his presence is certainly predictive of the team’s success, San Francisco suffering four of its five regular-season losses in 2023 when Williams was inactive (twice) or wasn’t on the field for at least half the snaps.
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An 11-time Pro Bowler and first-round pick of Washington in 2010, Williams was recently ranked the seventh-best player in the league by his peers in an annual NFL Network survey, the highest spot ever earned by an offensive lineman.
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