Juszczyk hopes 49ers tenure isn’t over after season-ending loss

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Juszczyk hopes 49ers tenure isn’t over after season-ending loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk was selected as one of eight 49ers captains for the 2024 NFL season, but that doesn’t guarantee he will be back with San Francisco in 2025.

Even though he’s under contract for next season, the nine-time Pro Bowl selection is fully aware the 49ers’ season-ending loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday might have been his final game with San Francisco.

The 49ers have tough salary-cap decisions to make this summer, but Juszczyk hopes he can survive the roster squeeze.

“It crossed my mind,” Juszczyk told reporters when asked if he thought Sunday’s game might be his last with the 49ers, via The San Francisco Chronicle’s Eric Branch. “I hope that’s not the case. Because at the end of the day, I will play somewhere else if that’s what I have to do. I just hope I don’t have to.”

The 33-year-old Juszczyk has earned Pro Bowl honors in all eight seasons with the 49ers, and while his value doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan knows how important a good fullback is to his offensive scheme.

“Kyle’s been a stud,” Shanahan told Greg Papa on last Thursday’s episode of “49ers Game Plan. “He was one of our first priorities to get him when we got here. Having a fullback is something I believe in. He’s a big part of the offense. Not always using him like a fullback but just having the threat to have a fullback can really dictate what defenses you get. It allows the offense to make sure you can do what you want and the defense going to have to adjust.

“But you got to have the right fullback and finding a guy like Kyle was huge because he’s big enough and tough enough to play the fullback position but athletic enough and smart enough to line up anywhere else. You don’t always have to use him like a fullback but you still maintain that threat. And getting Kyle here, I remember, everyone’s trying to value a fullback and stuff, and it got up to $4 or $5 million, I forget what it got up to, but it was way too much for a fullback. And I’m like ‘Whatever it costs, it’s worth, because we’re going to use him the most and he should be the highest-paid fullback for the team that’s going to get the most out of him.’

“But I remember when [49ers president of football operations/general manager] John [Lynch] introduced him, he introduced him as more of an offensive weapon and labeled him that and I’m like ‘John, he is an offensive weapon but we’re not going to pad his stats, so we can show all that. He’s going to be able to catch the ball, do all that stuff but he’s going to be an elite fullback’ and that’s exactly what he has been for us. Every time we hand the ball off to him, throw to him, whatever, he always comes down with it and makes the play, which is why he definitely could get a lot more of those. But he’s got a lot of good guys out there that do most of that stuff.

“But Kyle, just [as] a player, has been as good of a fullback in the history of football. But as a person, he’s unique too. He went to Harvard, which everyone likes to drop that he went to Harvard. But I actually think he acts like a guy who would brag about that, in terms of, he’s so smart, he’s consistent in everything he does. And if he didn’t make so much [money] in football, he’d be making it in something.”

Juszczyk, coming off his first Pro Bowl season in 2016, hit NFL free agency and signed a four-year, $21 million contract before the 2017 season.

He then signed a new five-year, $27 million contract before the 2021 season. But in March, Juszczyk and the 49ers agreed to restructure the deal to lower his 2024 cap number. He has a $4.1 million base salary for 2025 but with bonuses, his cap number is just under $6.5 million.

Four months later, Juszczyk admitted to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco that the 49ers asking him to take a pay cut “hurt.”

“Honestly, it hurt when John came to me and asked,” Juszczyk told Maiocco in July at the American Century Championship at Edgewood Tahoe South in Stateline, Nev. “I wasn’t necessarily expecting it. It kind of hurts your ego and hurts your heart a little bit. I understand that it’s a business, but I do feel like I’m as valuable as what I was expected to get paid.”

On Sunday, after the 49ers’ disappointing 6-11 season ended, Juszczyk was asked if he and the 49ers already have talked about his 2025 contract situation.

“There hasn’t been any discussion yet,” Juszczyk said, via Branch. “But I am aware of the situation that we have. There’s a lot up in the air. Who’s going to be here? Who’s not? Whose contracts need to be figured out? So I’m aware of that. I just hope it doesn’t affect me.”

Juszczyk caught 19 passes for 200 yards and two touchdowns while carrying the ball five times for 26 yards and one touchdown this season. He caught a touchdown in each of the 49ers’ final two games.

“I know I’m not done,” Juszczyk said, via Branch. “I’m definitely not done playing. I’ve seen zero regression. I mean, you can turn on the last two games and please show me where I’ve regressed. I have no plans of stopping.”

Juszczyk is a big part of the 49ers’ culture and while it’s out of his control, he’s not ready for his 49ers’ tenure to end.

“I really hope not,” Juszczyk said, via Branch. “I really, really do hope not. We’re going to find out.”

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