Williams thought he’d end up with Chiefs
Trent Williams couldn’t bear to break the news to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan.
So he didn’t.
On March 16, roughly an hour before the eighttime Pro Bowl left tackle agreed to terms on a sixyear, $138.06 million deal with the 49ers, he was certain he was going to sign with the Chiefs. Williams was so convinced that as he spoke to Shanahan, via FaceTime, outside a restaurant in Houston, he softpedaled what he figured was a reality.
“I didn’t even have the heart to say, ‘Hey, I’m … signing with somebody else,’ ” Williams said Tuesday, adding that “he
couldn’t even really get it out and just tell him.”
Fortunately for the 49ers, that’s not all Williams said. He also asked Shanahan to relay a message to 49ers chief contract negotiator Paraag Marathe. The gist of the message: Make me a better offer.
“I was just like, ‘Hey, man, we just need to hurry this up, if you get my drift,’ ” Williams said. “‘Tell Paraag … whatever they need to do. Tell him to finish and hurry up and work something out. I’m kind of ready to go ahead and make my decision. I would like for everything to be on the table.’
“So we had a good talk. I went back in and ate dinner and by the time I had literally had the keys from the valet and sat in the car, my agent was calling me and telling me the deal (with the 49ers) was done.”
Did the 49ers offer more money than Kansas City? Perhaps not. To be clear, Williams, 32, wasn’t interested in taking a hometown discount. He was intent on becoming the NFL’s highestpaid offensive lineman, a goal he realized. But it’s possible he accepted a competitive offer from the 49ers based on his relationship with Shanahan, whom he’d pledged to call before he agreed to a deal with another team.
Shanahan was Williams’ offensive coordinator for his first four NFL seasons (20102013) with Washington and Shanahan’s dad, Mike, was his head coach. Both relationships remain strong. In fact, Williams hung out with Mike Shanahan in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, a day before free agency began last week.
“We didn’t talk about free agency,” Williams said. “We just talked about football. We just caught up for a couple hours. That’s just how close I am with that family. Kyle didn’t have to sell a thing to me. I already knew what this place has to offer. I knew what he had to offer. And I knew what the front office would have to offer.”
The front office offered him a lot of money to play for a team that’s 13 months removed from playing in a Super Bowl.
It’s an ideal marriage — a union of cash and a contender — that Williams didn’t foresee when he thought about free agency in 2019, a season in which he didn’t play in the NFL.
“I thought I’d get a lot of money and be somewhere where I hated to be,” Williams said. “Or I’d be somewhere where I loved to be playing at a discount. I definitely didn’t think it would be both.”