49ers rework Joe Staley's contract to reward veteran lineman

The 49ers have reworked the contract for left tackle Joe Staley, something that head coach Kyle Shanahan last month said was a possibility.

The veteran offensive lineman had been in line to earn $4.8 million in base salary in the last two years of his contract, which would have made him the 22nd highest paid tackle in the league for the upcoming season.

The amended deal adds $6.5 million to the final two years of the contract, the NFL Network reported on Tuesday. He will now earn $17.4 million in salary and bonuses over the final two seasons.

Staley, a first-round draft pick in 2007, continues to be among the top players at his position even at age 33. Pro Football Focus ranked him as the second-best tackle in the NFL last season behind Green Bay's David Bakhtiari and Staley was named to his sixth Pro Bowl.

Last month Shanahan said the team was considering reworking Staley's most recent deal, which he signed in 2014, but cautioned that it was not a certainty.

'I wish we could overpay everybody,' he said. 'I mean, these guys deserve it in my opinion. What they go through, what they put their bodies through, the pressure that they're under. But you also have to do what's right for the organization. You want to do what's right for all of your players.'

Staley has been the unofficial captain of the 49ers offensive line for the past decade. He's missed just four starts in the last seven seasons. One of those absences came last year after he was punched in the face during a game in Philadelphia and suffered a broken orbital bone.

At the end of the season Staley said he felt reinvigorated by the tam's 5-0 finish and by the addition of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

'The energy's back in the building,' he said. 'The excitement level, attention to detail. This might sound kind of bad, but I'm enjoying football again. I'm excited to come to work every single day. In the last couple years, there were days where I couldn't honestly say that. So that's awesome to have that feeling back.'