Adding void years to contracts is a trending move by teams nowadays to spread out signing bonus money over a number of years to lessen the salary cap burden for a particular player deal. It has it’s pros and cons, mainly that it creates short-term financial flexibility but opens up long-term issues down the line.

The idea is even more valuable when you consider how much the salary cap has risen in recent years, as explained in this chart from The San Francisco Standard’s David Lombardi.

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As Lombardi alluded to, the San Francisco 49ers have been one of the more active teams utilizing this concept. The 49ers have the sixth-most salary cap space tied to void years over the next six seasons, according to data from Over The Cap via @sfdata9ers on X.

The 49ers have $164 million in cap space connected to void years, including $30.8 million in 2027 (fifth in the league that year), $27 million in 2028, $67.5 million in 2029 (second-most in the league that year), $27.3 million in 2030, $11 million in 2031 and none in 2032.

The biggest contracts that include void years aren’t terribly surprising. They involve some of the biggest contracts handed out by the 49ers in recent years.

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Here are the biggest void year salary cap numbers for the next six season on the 49ers, per Over The Cap data:

2027

Trent Williams: $20.83 million

Dre Greenlaw: $2.5 million

2028

Trent Williams: $8.59 million

Christian McCaffrey: $13.83 million

2029

Nick Bosa: $14.39 million

Brandon Aiyuk: $14.55 million

Colton McKivitz: $17.79 million

Mike Evans: $20.79 million

2030

George Kittle: $17.66 million

Fred Warner: $4.2 million

Eddy Piñeiro: $2.55 million

2031

A lot of these contracts will likely change in the coming, but it’s a good snapshot of where the 49ers have decided to push cap space into the future rather than take on that money immediately.

This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers have pushed more cap hits into void years than almost any team