If the San Francisco 49ers have intentions of keeping Chase Young beyond this season, Saturday provided an indication of how difficult that may be.

Young was traded to the Niners at the trade deadline on Tuesday, hours after his former teammate Montez Sweat was dealt to the Chicago Bears.

The former second overall pick may only be a rental for the 49ers given he is a free agent at the end of the season. Sweat, meanwhile, is firmly in the long-term plans of Chicago. The Bears and Sweat agreed to a four-year extension worth $98 million in new money, per NFL Media's Ian Rapoport.

Sweat will receive $72.87 million guaranteed as part of a deal that is worth a total of $105 million and may well set the baseline for what Young will command in negotiations with any team.

Young is enjoying his best season since his Defensive Rookie of the Year campaign in 2020. His 2021 and 2022 seasons were derailed by a knee injury that required Young to go under an ACL reconstruction, but he will likely to be able to land a contract worth more than that of Sweat should he continue his impressive start to 2023 with his new team.

Through eight games, Young has 38 pressures to his name, tied for the ninth-most in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus. He has five sacks and nine quarterback hits.

Still only 24, Young is three years younger than Sweat, who has 27 pressures and 6.5 sacks. Though his injury history could be an issue in future contract negotiations, a strong second half in which Young helps propel the defense of a 49ers team gunning for the Super Bowl back towards the league's elite would put him on course to surpass his former teammate with an extremely lucrative deal.

Only six teams are projected to have less cap space than the 49ers going into the 2024 league year, per Over The Cap, making the task of re-signing Young to a long term deal an extremely difficult one, especially when San Francisco already has an extension for wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk on its to-do list.

Depending on the level of his impact, the 49ers may feel compelled to get a deal done with Young. They may even want to use the franchise tag to buy themselves time to negotiate with him exclusively. That is still all to be revealed, but the Sweat deal at least gives a window into the price of doing business.

Steve Young sees some positives in Brock Purdy’s recent mistakes

The Hall of Famer came to his defense.