Vernon Davis not at minicamp today

San Francisco 49ers star tight end Vernon Davis will make $4.7 million this upcoming season and $4.35 million in 2015 before his contract runs out in 2016, but the 30-year-old isn’t happy with his contract and has made that quite clear this offseason. Davis has played coy with everyone over the past couple of weeks, as he’s stated that he would like to retire with the only organization he’s played for since his career began in 2006 before downplaying talk of him skipping out on mandatory minicamp. Davis wants to receive more money from a team that doesn’t have much money given their depth, talent, and an extension for their franchise quarterback.

That hasn’t stopped Davis from trying to do what he can to receive a better contract, and ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Davis is not attending 49ers minicamp today due to his contract dispute. Davis sat out OTAs as a statement, and now that statement has been amplified a great deal by his decision to sit out today. If he decides to continue to sit out, then he will have taken a very hardball stance against a premier franchise that added several more weapons for Colin Kaepernick this offseason.

Davis is worth more than $4.7 million, but he has no leverage due to his age, the quality of the team he plays for, the lack of money the team has, the quality of pass-catchers the team now has, and the fact that non-quarterbacks simply don’t win in these disputes. This will ultimately be resolved, but it’s just about impossible envisioning Davis getting a raise of any sort from the 49ers organization or things ever deteriorating to the point where there is a split of any sort. There’s no doubt that Davis has plenty of value to the team, as the versatile, athletic TE caught 52 passes for 850 yards (an excellent average of 16.3 yards per catch) and 13 touchdowns last year.