With all the highly paid star players they have on their roster, life is expected to get much trickier for the San Francisco 49ers next offseason when quarterback Brock Purdy will become eligible for a contract extension.

Though balancing Purdy's contract with the host of other lucrative ones they are already paying could prove a difficult ask, for 2024 the Niners are in a very comfortable position.

The 49ers have the sixth-most cap space in the NFL following the recent extension of Offensive Player of the Year Christian McCaffrey. 

San Francisco has another extension still on its to-do list, the long awaited new deal for All-Pro wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk. 

Negotiations over that contract were reported by ESPN's Jeremy Fowler on Sunday as having "stalled".

But if the 49ers can eventually come to terms on a deal with Aiyuk, it would put them in a position few would expect.

Aiyuk is right now due to play on a fifth-year option that would pay him a guaranteed base salary of $14.124 million.

If and when the 49ers agree to a contract with Aiyuk, they would likely significantly lower his 2024 cap hit by substantially decreasing that base salary while paying Aiyuk a massive signing bonus that is given to him up front but, for cap purposes, is spread over the life of the contract.

Despite the plethora of All-Pros and Pro Bowlers they have, right now wide receiver is the only position in which the 49ers are in the top five in the NFL in positional spending for 2024, San Francisco paying nearly $53 million to its wideout room.

That will naturally come down as players are cut before season, but the Aiyuk extension would almost certainly take San Francisco out of the top five.

In other words, the Aiyuk extension would put the 49ers in a spot where they have the best roster in the NFL without being in the top five in 2024 spending at any position.

Achieving such a feat would be a testament to a front office that has typically drafted well and done an impressive job of tying key players to team-friendly contracts, but it would also be reflective of the value of having an owner in Jed York who is consistently prepared to pay huge signing bonuses up front.

A team-friendly deal is what the 49ers will be seeking with Aiyuk, who is reported to have been offered a contract that would pay him $26 million annually. Aiyuk is said to want a deal that beats Amon-Ra St. Brown's contract with the Detroit Lions, which pays St. Brown $28 million annually over the first three years.

There doesn't seem to be a great deal of immediate urgency on the 49ers' part to bridge that gap but, as the positional spending figures illustrate, doing so makes a great deal of financial sense as well as being the right decision for their hopes of remaining in the Super Bowl hunt in 2024 and beyond. 

San Francisco 49ers cut candidate has compelling argument against increasingly likely exit

He excelled in this area.