(Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
They are not done yet, folks. The offensive line continues to get filled out with familiar faces as, according to Trent Williams, who just signed a six-year, $138.06 million deal the 49ers will sign former longtime Falcons and Browns center Alex Mack. Mack spent the 2016 season with Kyle Shanahan in Atlanta and has made nine Pro Bowls, with his last appearance coming in 2018.
#49ers sign C Alex Mack, as many expected given the hole at center, with Trent Williams getting in on the reporting https://t.co/iAEFkTMCeR pic.twitter.com/HMi7Sh714C
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) March 17, 2021
That “reporting” from Williams was quickly verified by other reporters, assuring that Mack is in fact coming to San Francisco. The 36-year-old Cal alum returns to the Bay Area. In Mack, the 49ers are getting a player who missed two games last season due to a concussion and COVID-19 protocols. Those two games are his only absences since 2014.
Six years, two missed games. For a 49ers team decimated by injuries last season, there’s been a priority not just on retaining the core of Williams, Kyle Juszczyk, Emmanuel Moseley and Jason Verrett, but adding free agents who can be relied upon in Mack and Samson Ebukam, who has not missed a game in his three-year career.
With Mack signed, the 49ers’ needs shift to the secondary, with K’Waun Williams still on the market and reportedly likely to sign with the New York Jets, and depth and competition needed behind Verrett. But at the moment, it’s tough to point to any position on this team and say there is a glaring, desperate need. Keep in mind there are nine draft picks stocked up to fill out whatever isn’t addressed in free agency.