Your daily San Francisco 49ers news for Tuesday, May 20th, 2025
49ers sign All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner to record 3-year, $63M extension
“The 49ers extended Warner when he had two years left on his contract, which is a rarity for the franchise. However, it behooved the 49ers to rip up Warner’s old deal early for salary cap purposes. Warner previously had salary cap charges of $29.17 million in 2025 and $26.71 million in 2026 due to multiple contract restructures. His new contract is presumably backloaded to provide a cap breathing room for the near future, which might have been necessary with Purdy’s five-year, $265 million extension now on the books.”
How wrestling helped mold 49ers’ Mykel Williams: ‘He doesn’t know what quit is’ (paywall)
“He had mostly played along the offensive line as a freshman because Hardaway had suffered an injury at the position and needed bodies. In the all-star game, he’d be playing defensive end, and he asked Hardaway’s head football coach at the time, Michael Woolridge, to give him some pointers. Williams met him on a Sunday before the camp began, and Wooldridge remembers laying out hula hoops and teaching the 15-year-old how to bend and sink his hips.
Then, Woolridge watched with amazement as his protégé collected five sacks.
“These were the top offensive linemen in the state of Georgia,” he recalled. “And he destroyed ’em. He absolutely destroyed ’em. I think that was a turning point. We all saw that he had size and strength, and we always knew he had a chance. But that all-star game, it was an exclamation mark. After that, it was, ‘How high can this kid go?’”
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“I showed him the data,” he said. “I said, ‘Look at all the first-round draft picks. Look at Ray Lewis. Look at Roddy White. Look at these guys you think of as great. They were state champions in wrestling.’”……Williams was sold, and he started putting the same work into wrestling as he did football. A relative who had coached wrestling gave him a book to study. And anyone who lived around Columbus’ Lakebottom Park would regularly see Williams running through the park and up the hills to build stamina and cut weight after football season…..As far as wrestling and the ways it enhanced his football skills, Williams said it helped his grip strength, balance and body control. He tallied 17 sacks as a high school junior and another 12 1/2 as a senior, and he said the hand fighting he learned in wrestling was an asset in batting away blockers to get to the quarterback.
As a junior, he was able to cut weight from football season and get below the 220-pound mark for wrestling. By his senior year, he’d grown closer to the 260 pounds he weighs today and wrestled in the 285-pound class.”
Report: Purdy’s 49ers contract includes full no-trade clause
“If the substantial money committed — reportedly $181 million fully guaranteed — wasn’t enough of a vote of confidence, the 49ers’ willingness to include a no-trade clause sends a clear message about how the franchise views Purdy as a key building block for San Francisco moving forward.”