SANTA CLARA — A month ago, I wrote in this very space that the Trent Williams’ hold-out didn’t worry me for the Niners.
Allow me to revise that statement.
If I were the Niners, I would be worried sick that Williams would follow through on his promise not to play unless San Francisco made him the highest-paid offensive lineman in the league for the 2024 season (and, perhaps, beyond).
Because if Williams doesn’t play, the Niners can’t even sniff the Super Bowl, much less win one.
It’s as cut-and-dry as that.
A month ago, such a negotiation seemed cut-and-dry, too. Williams named a price, and the Niners needed to meet it.
You don’t go to Target and negotiate the cost of a bath towel. You pay the price on the tag, or you don’t get the item.
In this terrible analogy, Williams might be a very expensive bath towel, but you get the point.
Apparently, 49ers general manager John Lynch has not.
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On Wednesday, Lynch went to the dais at Levi’s Stadium and tersely answered questions about the Niners’ two hold-outs, Brandon Aiyuk and Williams.
On Williams, the GM said, “There’s good communication. We’re constantly working, throwing out ideas to try to have a breakthrough, and it just hasn’t happened yet.”
What ideas are there to toss out there, John?
Is this guy still trying to negotiate?
Let’s make something clear about Williams: this is not a man to be trifled with in any capacity.
The man has beaten cancer. He’s made more money than any offensive lineman in the NFL’s history. At age 36, he’s one of the best players in the league. I didn’t say linemen; I said players.
The only question to be asked about his legacy is, “What size will your gold jacket be, sir?”
And don’t forget this man held out for the entirety of the 2019 season on principle.
Williams has never once flinched in his life, and he’s not bluffing here. Pay up, or he will not render his services.
Services the 49ers desperately need.
Yet, for some unknown, and frankly unjustifiable reason, the Niners continue to test Williams.
They better cut that out, lest they torpedo their Super Bowl hopes before the season starts.
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Let’s make something else clear: the Niners are not equipped to compete without Williams.
This offensive line is one of the worst in the NFL going into the campaign without Williams. Even with him, it’s average at best.
We saw how woeful the 49ers were without Williams last season. When the left tackle missed three games mid-campaign, the Niners lost all three contests. The offense couldn’t move the ball, and Brock Purdy looked anything like the league MVP.
And when Williams looked like a lesser version of himself in the Super Bowl, the Niners’ offense sputtered again.
San Francisco currently has two tackles on the team’s 53-man roster, and that duo is high in the running for the worst tackle pairing in football. (There’s some steep competition this season.) Pair that with a questionable (at best) interior line, and the Niners could be looking at a situation where Purdy has nowhere to hide.
He might be a mobile quarterback, and Kyle Shanahan might be an offensive genius, but you can’t scheme around a problem like this.
The Niners can manage if Aiyuk decides to play hardball and holds out for weeks on end. They’ll be worse, but there’s viable depth at wide receiver. Jauan Jennings can take snaps. Ricky Pearsall and Jacob Cowing can, too. The Niners can even trot Chris Conley.
Not one is a player on the level of Aiyuk, but you can aggregate something worthwhile. Jennings as a blocker, Pearsall as the intermediate-to-deep routes, Cowing on the short digs.
Again, you’d prefer to have No. 11, but you’re not buried without him.
The Niners are buried without No. 71.
Lynch and Shanahan keep saying they are “optimistic” that something will get done, but the time for optimism has passed. There’s a game in 10 days. It’s time for pragmatism.
Because amid 15-or-so minutes of obfuscation, gaslighting, and lying (outright), Lynch did say something true on Wednesday:
“We don’t get paid to try. We get paid to do,” Lynch said.
And right now, his job is to pay Williams whatever it takes to get the big man back to work. Get it done.
