The 49ers are going to look a lot different in 2025. So is NBC Sports Bay Area.

Donte Whitner is out.

The former Niners safety, who spent the last seven years giving brutally honest takes on the team for the network, confirmed to SFGate that NBC let him go earlier this offseason. According to Whitner, they told him it was a budget thing, that he was the highest-paid personality at the network and they couldn’t afford to keep him.

“They told me they didn’t have any money, that I was the highest paid at the network, and that they were switching over and it was budget cuts,” Whitner told SFGate. “It was unfortunate. I put a lot of hard work, sweat, and tears into being the best that I could for a long period of time. But I guess that happens.”

It’s a tough ending for someone who delivered exactly what the station once asked for.

“I got a lot of really good feedback from the San Francisco fans when I was out in the community about how much they liked the commentary and the clothes and the bluntness and telling it how it is,” Whitner continued. “I remember dating back to my first meeting with Bob [Sargent, the director of broadcast partnerships for the 49ers], and a lot of those people that were at NBC, they told me that they wanted me to be that way. They wanted the bluntness. They wanted me to tell it how it was. They didn’t want me to be a homer.”

He did. He wasn’t afraid to call a guy out, even if it meant saying a quarterback — like, say, Dak Prescott — “sucks” live on air. That rawness made him a must-watch. And it made him one of the rare ex-players who actually added something to a broadcast, rather than just saying clichés in a suit.

Now he’s just confused.

“So here we are, eight years later, ratings at what I believe are the highest in network history, and this is how it ends,” he said. “Doesn’t add up.”

As for his other media work, it’s a little murky. His KNBR postgame appearances were booked through the 49ers, so it’s unclear if those are continuing. But Whitner’s not going away. According to SFGate, he’s teaming up with Patrick Willis and longtime Bay Area voice Rod Brooks for a new podcast that’s expected to launch soon.

NBC, meanwhile, is moving in a more traditional direction. Longtime 49ers insider Matt Maiocco is sliding into the studio chair Whitner vacated. He’ll join Carlos Ramirez and Rod Brooks on pre- and postgame shows, with NBC confirming that Maiocco won’t travel to games anymore.

All Whitner knows is, he did the job they asked for. And now he’s out.