2021 NFL free agency preview: 49ers OL Trent Williams has rare power over his future

Free agency begins March 17. Who are the best players available? And will the Dolphins make a play for them? We explore in this series of player profiles ahead of the league new year.

Trent Williams

2020 team: San Francisco 49ers.

Position: Offensive tackle.

Age: 32.

ESPN free agent ranking: 2.

2020 stats: Fourteen starts, four sacks allowed, five holding penalties, three false starts, 91.9 Pro Football Focus grade.

2020 salary: $12.5 million.

Market value (per Spotrac): Three years, $54.8 million.

Player summary: New home, same Williams in 2020, who after a medical dispute strong-armed Washington into trading him to San Francisco by sitting out the entire previous season. Williams showed little signs of rust, even well into his 30s, earning an eighth Pro Bowl nod on what turned out to be a 49ers bad team. Is another address change in the cards? Williams — who has contract language prohibiting the 49ers from using the franchise tag on him in 2021 — likely wants one last payday, and the Bengals, Jaguars and Colts have both the need and resources to make that happen.

Likelihood he joins the Dolphins: Low. The Dolphins’ offensive line was below average this year, and we expect them to sign at least one, and perhaps more interior linemen in free agency. But they just spent a first (Austin Jackson) and second-round draft pick (Robert Hunt) on tackle, and will likely use their more limited cap space this spring on playmakers.

Quotable: “He is very much a priority for us. We thought that when we traded for him. Everyone said, ‘Hey, you’re getting him for one year,’ but you have a heck of a better chance, in my mind, when you get him in the building, and he feels our culture and everything. And Trent’s been fantastic.” — 49ers general manager John Lynch on Trent Williams.

This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 9:34 AM.

Adam H. Beasley

Miami Herald

305-376-2387

Adam Beasley has covered the Dolphins for the Miami Herald since 2012, and has worked for the newspaper since 2006. He is a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communications and has written about sports professionally since 1996. Support my work with a digital subscription