49ers Sign Alex Mack

Mack played for Shanahan on the Falcons in 2016 when they went to the Super Bowl.

Grant Cohn | Mar 17, 2021

The 49ers finally locked down their center position. At least for now.

The 49ers signed 35-year-old center Alex Mack early Wednesday morning, according to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. The terms of the deal have not yet been released.

Mack replaces Weston Richburg, who's only 29. Richburg has been the 49ers' starting center since 2018, but hasn't played since midway through the 2019 season because he tore the patellar tendon in his knee and is expected to retire.

In retrospect, the 49ers should have replaced him last offseason.

But they've replaced him now. And the replacement is an upgrade. When the 49ers signed Richburg, head coach Kyle Shanahan compared him to Alex Mack, which was rich, because Mack is much better than Richburg and everyone knows it. Richburg was solid. Mack is special.

Mack played for Shanahan on the Falcons in 2016 when they went to the Super Bowl. He's a six-time Pro Bowler who's extremely smart and mature, and will fill the leadership void on the offensive line that Joe Staley created when he retired. Plus, Mack still is an excellent player. He provides more than leadership. Although he did miss a game last season with a concussion. It was the first game he had missed since 2014.

Mack played college football at Cal -- he was on the same team as DeSean Jackson, and surprisingly has had a better pro career than him. Returning to the Bay Area to finish his career must appeal to Mack.

Let's see how long he lasts. He turns 36 in November.

Published Mar 17, 2021

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.