The San Francisco 49ers have signed offensive lineman Laken Tomlinson to a three-year extension. The deal will keep him with San Francisco through the 2021 season. Mike Garafolo of NFL Network was the first to report the news of the signing. The deal is reportedly worth a maximum value of $18 million with $10 million in guarantees.
Niners agree to three-year extension with OL Laken Tomlinson, source says. Deal worth a max of $18m with $10m in guarantees.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) June 22, 2018
The 49ers announced the signing shortly after the report by Garafolo.
"Laken is a very talented player who has improved consistently since joining the team one week before last year's season opener," said 49ers general manager John Lynch via a statement issued to the media. "This offseason, his hard work and dedication paid off as he continued to progress and performed at a high level. We were confident we could work out a contract extension with Laken and we are fired up to get that done before training camp."
Tomlinson, 26, joined the 49ers via a trade with the Detroit Lions on August 31, 2017. 49ers senior personnel executive Martin Mayhew was the general manager in Detroit when Tomlinson was selected No. 28 overall in 2015 and played a big part in bringing the offensive lineman to San Francisco.
After missing the 49ers' season opener last year, Tomlinson went on to start the next 15 games at left guard. The team had an opportunity to pick up his fifth-year option last month but opted not to with the hope of signing him to an extension. The 49ers did pick up the fifth-year option of defensive end Arik Armstead.
"Those options are tricky deals," Lynch explained last month on KNBR. "So we had that opportunity with [Arik Armstead] and Laken Tomlinson. I actually pulled Laken in here (to my office) yesterday and had a great talk with him. This is in no way a reflection of what we think or don't think of him. In fact, we're going to work towards making Laken a part of us for the long-term future around here."
Tomlinson has missed just one (last season's opener) of the 48 games over the course of his three years in the NFL and has started 39. His 15 starts in 2017 were a career-high.
