{"id":718951,"date":"2026-01-31T11:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/718951\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T11:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:34:14","slug":"49ers-news-rising-tide-nfl-salary-cap-lifts-all-boats-the-49ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/718951\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers News: Rising tide (NFL salary cap) lifts all boats (the 49ers)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The projected increase represents a substantial jump from the 2025 salary cap of $279.2 million.\u201d<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.49erswebzone.com\/articles\/198800-49ers-address-future-nflcom-draft\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">49ers address key future need in NFL.com 2026 mock draft<\/a><br \/>\u201cHe\u2019s not a physically dominant blocker, but [Utah OT Caleb] Lomu has the strong technique and good balance to be a starting left or right tackle,\u201d Edholm wrote. \u201cThe 49ers won\u2019t have Trent Williams forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Lomu allowed eight pressures and zero sacks across 383 pass-blocking snaps during the 2025 season. His 82.1 pass-blocking grade marked a career high, though his 62.0 run-blocking grade represented a noticeable drop from his 70.1 mark in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The 49ers place a premium on run blocking, giving Lomu ample opportunity to improve an area that PFF identified as a weakness in his play in 2025. He also profiles as a natural long-term replacement at left tackle, having logged 1,570 snaps at the position over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Even if Lomu\u2014listed at 6-foot-6 and 308 pounds\u2014isn\u2019t ready to start immediately, he would benefit from developing behind a future Hall of Fame offensive lineman in Williams, who remains one of the NFL\u2019s most dominant and reliable forces in the trenches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Bradley\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 as a defensive coordinator is a bit of a mixed bag with plenty of early success and not as much in his more recent turns. In 2011 and 2012 in Seattle, Bradley coordinated defenses that finished seventh and first in the NFL in scoring defense, respectively. His 2017 unit with the Chargers finished third.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">But Bradley\u2019s most recent opportunity in Indianapolis came with less success; the Colts finished 28th, 28th and 24th in scoring defense from 2022 to 2024, though that group was 18th in defensive expected points added in that time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For the 49ers in 2025, Bradley was a sounding board for Saleh and became a player favorite for his pregame motivational speeches.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The projected increase represents a substantial jump from the 2025 salary cap of $279.2 million.\u201d49ers address key future&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,52307,7,6,1161,252,1137,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-718951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-49ers-links","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115989503496463320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}