Niners owner: Exodus partly tied to paying Purdy

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- On the heels of the San Francisco 49ers' free agent exodus, owner Jed York spent part of Tuesday morning explaining the reasoning for the team's offseason approach publicly for the first time.

According to York, the decision to bid farewell to 17 players via free agency, trade or release and not spend much on outside free agents was largely tied to the payday coming soon for quarterback Brock Purdy.

It's why York chuckled and shrugged off the notion that he's been "cheap" this offseason after ranking at or near the top of the league in spending over the past five years.

"I've been called worse," York said. "I get it. Fans care. You want to win. And when you're in a world where everybody is watching the NFL the first week of free agency or at least the first few days of free agency, it's a frenzy. ... When you're not overly active in that space, it gets easy to say 'Oh, you don't want to win.' ... I don't know that, as we looked at the board, that there was somebody that we felt made that type of an impact more so than making the decision to try to go pay Brock."

As far back as last year's league meeting in Orlando, York has maintained that he is looking forward to signing off on what will be one of the most significant raises in NFL history.

Despite Purdy's uneven 2024 season in which key members of his supporting cast were injured for much of the season and the quarterback's numbers dipped from the near-MVP-level performance he had in 2023; York remains steadfast in wanting to keep Purdy for the long haul.

As the Niners assessed their roster-building approach for this offseason after dropping to 6-11 and again failing to break through for the franchise's sixth Lombardi Trophy, York said the team solidified the decision to pay Purdy midway through last season.

On Tuesday, York called Purdy a top-10 quarterback in the league, a tacit acknowledgement that a commensurate payday is in the offing.

"I think he is," York said. "I think he's great. Especially when you combine him with [coach] Kyle [Shanahan] and you combine him with what we have, and he's a heck of a quarterback. And we want him to be here for a long, long time."

Once that decision was cemented, the 49ers forged ahead with the knowledge that the offseason would likely bring far more departures than arrivals. In the opening days of free agency, San Francisco said goodbye to key starters such as linebacker Dre Greenlaw, cornerback Charvarius Ward, safety Talanoa Hufanga and guard Aaron Banks. They also traded wideout Deebo Samuel and running back Jordan Mason and released veteran defensive linemen Leonard Floyd and Maliek Collins.

In many of those cases, the Niners took on accelerated dead money on the salary cap, a number that exceeds $86 million for 2025 but clears the ledger a bit in 2026 and beyond. Such is the price to pay when one of the oldest teams in the league has continued to try to jump through a Super Bowl window before it closes, to no avail, and wants to pay its quarterback.

"It's just a math thing," York said. "When you sit down with your guys and figure out where do you want to go, what do you want to build, when you make the decision that you want to pay a quarterback that has obviously been underpaid for his first three seasons in the NFL. When you make that change, you have to make sacrifices somewhere. It's a decision that we made collectively, and we're hoping that we make somebody the highest-paid player in the history of our franchise."

The 49ers' more prudent approach to spending this offseason also has coincided with other storylines surrounding the team and the York family when it comes to adding to its sports portfolio and a potential cash infusion via the sale of a chunk of the team.

49ers Enterprises already owns the Leeds United soccer team, and it's been reported that an agreement to buy Rangers FC in Glasgow, Scotland, is also in the offing. That has left some fans wondering whether the Niners are tightening their financial belts with an eye toward preserving funds for that deal. Nothing is done on that front just yet, according to York.

"We haven't done anything there," York said. "Leeds is obviously under the umbrella, but those are completely separate from the 49ers. Where we can tie brands together and sort of take our best practices of operating and things like that, [we do,] but in terms of financials, they don't overlap at all."

Similar questions about a need for an influx of cash have also been posed in the midst of reports that the Niners are looking to sell a 10% minority stake to a private equity firm or other qualified investors.

York said his family gets approached "probably on a weekly basis" by parties interested in buying a piece of the 97% of the team his family controls. But he called any potential deal there a "family asset allocation decision" based on the wants and needs of various family members.

"It's just one of those things where if there's an opportunity that makes sense, we would always explore that, but I'm not sure what we're going to end up doing," York said. "And if we do, we would try to find the right people who would help bolster everything that we're doing in and around the team, on the field, off the field and just make sure that we had good partners that are with us."

In the meantime, a deal for Purdy remains the focus for York and the Niners. While general manager John Lynch expressed optimism Monday that a Purdy deal could be done soon despite the team's penchant for dragging such things out in recent years, York declined to put a timeline on it happening.

"I don't negotiate contracts, but any conversations that I've had with Brock have been great," York said. "I feel good. When he's ready, we'll sit down and finish it. It shouldn't be that hard to do."