49ers' Williams inks deal after unspecified offseason injury

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Nose tackle Ian Williams officially signed a one-year contract, the 49ers announced on Wednesday.

The short-team deal replaces a five-year contract that was agreed upon by both sides before the 49ers sent their medical team to Florida to examine Williams after he sustained an unspecified offseason injury.

Baalke said Williams’ injury will not impact how the 49ers approach the draft. He said the plan is to eventually sign Williams to a multi-year contract to keep him in the organization.

“Ian is somebody that we expect to sign to a long-term deal,” Baalke said. "At this point, based on the current situation, it just made more sense for everyone to take a step back, get a new contract for a year and take a look at this situation and then work on the future.”

[MAIOCCO: Source: 49ers, Williams amend deal after failed physical]

“Once we found out he had sustained an injury, we went through the process of figuring out the extent of it,” 49ers general manager Trent Baalke said at the NFL owners meetings.

“(Agent) Drew (Rosenhaus) and Ian were up-front. We just came to the conclusion that the best thing for both sides was to move forward, but move forward on a one-year contract vs. the original contract that was put together.”

Neither Baalke nor 49ers coach Chip Kelly revealed how Williams was injured. He is likely to open training camp in July on the non-football injury list, Baalke said.

“We’ll know more on what it looks like in the next month,” Baalke said. “As soon as we get through this next month, we’ll have a pretty good idea on his time to return.”

Said Kelly, “It sounds like he’s going to be OK. We’ll just monitor him when we get back in April in terms of exactly where he is.”

Williams won the 49ers’ starting job in 2013 after the free-agent departure of Isaac Sopoaga. In the second game of the season, he sustained a fractured left lower leg on a block from then-Seattle guard JR Sweezy. Williams came back at the start of 2014, but sustained another season-ending leg fracture to the same area.

Williams, 26, played in all 16 regular season games last year and ranked third on the 49ers with 85 tackles, according to the statistics the coaching staff compiled. Williams originally signed with the 49ers in 2011 as an undrafted rookie from Notre Dame.

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