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Citing salary-cap problems that will torment the payroll for at least another season, General Manager Terry Donahue said Monday that the 49ers will take a restrained approach to free-agent negotiations this off-season.
Donahue said the team ranks among the NFL's leaders in "dead money"
-- salary paid to players no longer on the team -- over the past three years
and vowed that he would no longer try to skirt cap problems by pushing the burden
to future seasons.
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"If we want to get clean, sooner or later we have to take our medicine," Donahue said.
Even with the restraints, Donahue said the 49ers are optimistic about retaining
most of their key free agents. He is especially confident about securing star
linebacker Julian Peterson, with whom talks are moving forward.
Donahue was less effusive about the progress made toward re-signing Terrell
Owens but said he expects the receiver to be back. Owens' return would represent
something of an upset. Though he had another Pro Bowl season, he also vented
about his role in the offense, clashed with quarterback Jeff Garcia and said
in a television interview that he has thought about playing for a different
quarterback.
Sidelined by a broken collarbone for the season finale Saturday, Owens headed
for the locker room with three minutes to play during a 24-17 loss to the Seattle
Seahawks.
"I'm not hesitant about re-signing T.O.," Donahue said. "Every
sense that I've gotten from him is that he does want to be here. I haven't asked
him why he left the field. I haven't had that discussion with him. But we'd
like to get him back."
Keeping Peterson, Owens and others among the team's 14 potential unrestricted
free agents, will take a different type of creativity than in years past. The
49ers, like most teams, annually try to skirt the limitations of the salary
cap by spreading the hit over several years. In what Donahue described as a
"false contract," a team might sign a player for six years even if
it expects him to play for three.
The problem is that too many of those, combined with miscalculations and bad
luck, have created the 49ers' dead-money problem. Donahue cited Junior Bryant
(who signed a seven-year, $16 million contract in 2000) and J.J. Stokes (who
signed a five-year, $16.9 million contract in 1999) as examples of players whose
contracts have put a drag on the payroll. Donahue said he would no longer try
to manipulate the salary-cap outlook through false contracts, even if it means
risking losing a player.
"We are committed to cap health, not cap hell," he said.
The team will also approach highly paid veterans about restructuring their contracts.
There is also the matter of players such as Garcia, whose contract, according
to Donahue, was designed to be redone from the second it was signed. Garcia
signed a six-year, $36 million contract in 2001 that was restructured in 2002.
He has a $10 million cap figure for 2004.
"We'd like Jeff back," Donahue said. "When we signed Jeff to
that contract three years ago, we knew full well and they knew full well that
this would be negotiated. That was discussed openly and candidly between the
parties. There was no way that we would be able to swallow a $10 million hit."
Donahue said there will be fewer restructured deals than in the past -- redone
deals are part of the reason the team has struggled with the cap. He said the
team will continue to reshape its thinking and used the Philadelphia Eagles
as an example of a franchise that wins without falling prey to unwieldy long-term
contracts.
The Eagles' strategy comes with risk. The team let some big names walk away,
including defensive end Hugh Douglas and linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, and instead
invested heavily in one star-caliber contract (for quarterback Donovan McNabb).
Donahue, however, indicated that he would like to find a way to fit Garcia,
Owens and Peterson under the cap.
"I think you want to retain as many star players as you can," he said.
"You just need to balance that with the long-term ramifications of the
contracts you do. It's a balancing act."
Peterson, 25, is the obvious priority. He made the Pro Bowl for the second consecutive
season and won the team's Len Eshmont Award for his commanding locker-room presence.
It will cost the 49ers to keep him, although Donahue downplayed the connection
to the eight-year, $80 million extension recently signed by Washington Redskins
linebacker LaVar Arrington. The deal reportedly includes $26.5 million in bonuses.
Arrington's agent, Kevin Poston, also represents Peterson.
"He will be happy, we will be happy, and Julian will be on the team,"
Donahue said. "Can I guarantee that? No, but I'm anticipating that he will
be on the team."