Fullback Kyle Juszczyk secured his return to the 49ers when he agreed to a revised contract with the team early this offseason, but it wasn’t an easy conversation for him to have with General Manager John Lynch.
Lynch and the 49ers were looking to clear cap space ahead of the offseason and came to Juszyzck with a request for him to take a pay cut in order to remain with the club. Juszyzck agreed to a reworked deal that saved $4 million in cap space for the 49ers after taking a moment to deal with his initial emotional response.
“Honestly, it hurt,” Juszczyk said to Matt Maiocco of NBCSportsBayArea.com. “When John came to me and asked, I wasn’t necessarily expecting it, and I think it’s natural for anybody that it kind of hurts your ego. It hurts your heart a little bit. I do understand that it’s a business, but I do feel like I’m as valuable as what I was expected to get paid. All that said, there definitely was a process that we had to go through. and I had to come to terms with it and that sort of thing. At the end of the day, though, I really, truly, I wanted to be a Niner. This is where I wanted to be. I absolutely love it here.”
Juszczyk remains the highest-paid fullback in the league and he said he believes the 49ers are the best team in the league, which are both reasons why there are no lingering “hard feelings” about the contract alteration.