We’ve seen the San Francisco 49ers extend wide receiver Jauan Jennings and Christian McCaffrey this offseason. Many believe Brandon Aiyuk is next on the docket, but there are a couple of other players on the roster who could help create additional cap space.

One of those players is Charvarius Ward, who is coming off a career season where he was named an All-Pro. ESPN’s Aaron Schatz wrote about the final move for each team before training camp and believes the 49ers should extend Mooney:

Extend CB Charvarius Ward

Yes, there’s a lot of talk about what the 49ers will do with their wide receiver contracts, but there are other players who become free agents in 2025 and need to be extended. San Francisco may not want to extend linebacker Dre Greenlaw until they know what he looks like coming back from the Achilles injury he suffered in Super Bowl LVIII, but they could turn their attention to Ward, their best cornerback. Ward has played well since coming over as a free agent from Kansas City. He ranked 26th out of 93 qualifying corners in coverage DVOA last season with a league-leading 23 passes defensed. His contract has three void years after 2024, but he’ll be just 29 years old in 2025, so it’s a good time for the 49ers to get him wrapped up for a few more seasons.

Your instant reaction might be, “They don’t have the money to extend him!”

However, according to Over the Cap, an extension for Ward would create cap savings for the 49ers in every season through 2027:

2024 – $9.6M
2025: $10.2M
2026: $10.2M
2027: $10.1M

So, there’s an incentive to pay Ward and not just reward him for being one of the top cornerbacks last season and outplaying his previous contract, but it gives the team more cap space to pay Aiyuk and Brock Purdy next season.