Will the San Francisco 49ers keep Alex Boone?
The San Francisco 49ers don’t have many important free agents set to hit the open market this offseason, so guard Alex Boone will be the most attractive option to other teams if the Niners don’t re-sign him. Should Trent Baalke and new head coach Chip Kelly choose to keep him around, or should they save their money and look for a new starting guard?
Although Baalke has final say on personnel decisions for the San Francisco 49ers, most people are looking at the 49ers current players and wondering who fits Kelly’s offense and who doesn’t. Most of that talk has centered around skill position players, prominently quarterback Colin Kaepernick and oft-injured-but-talented running back Carlos Hyde, but Alex Boone, who has played at both left and right guard for the 49ers, is in an even more precarious situation with the organization.
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Boone, of course, wasn’t afraid about being vocal with regards to Jim Harbaugh‘s failings as the 49ers head coach, and some wonder if he might not gel well with Kelly as a result of this. This concern was raised by ESPN NFL Nation’s Paul Gutierrez, so it isn’t just a prediction only being thrown around by members of the 49ers fan base.
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At his best, Boone is one of the best guards in the business, and he would be a hot commodity on the free agent market, especially if the Baltimore Ravens are able to lock up the elite Kelechi Osemele. I’m not sure if Boone deserves the “elite” tag after a somewhat toned-down 2015 campaign, but he and Andrew Tiller did good work for the Niners last season, and Boone has traditionally been one of the best in the business.
Designations like “elite” can be arbitrary, but, yeah, I would still consider Boone one of the best players at his position. He’s been so good for so long that it’s sometimes hard to believe that he’ll only be 29 when the season opens up, so he has another good three or four seasons left in the tank.
According to OverTheCap.com, only the perennially rich Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders have more projected cap space than the 49ers, which isn’t surprise since the Niners have quickly become one of the most talent-deficient teams in the league. Anthony Davis was one of the major retirements on the 49ers roster last season, and his return would greatly boost an offensive line that suffered as steep of a drop-off as any on this roster.
As a matter of fact, Pro Football Focus recently ranked the San Francisco offensive line as the 27th-best out of the 32 lines in the league, and it’s a reminder that embattled quarterback Colin Kaepernick hasn’t been given the best supporting cast over the past couple of seasons. A downturn in surrounding talent has been one of the hallmarks of his back-to-back poor seasons, and while there’s no excusing the fact that Kap has been a disappointment and deserves to be on the hot seat, the 49ers need to make sure that Kap or their next QB is given sweeping upgrades.
Losing Boone would create another hole on an offense that had big issues at center and right tackle (without Davis, of course), and they could also use another RB (Hyde might be too injury-prone to trust) and wide receiver (Anquan Boldin is the other big-name vet on the 49ers offense who is set to hit free agency here in 2016).
Whatever say Chip has in who he wants Baalke to keep on the roster, I wonder if the former Philadelphia Eagles head coach will look at the guard position more favorably in his second stint as an NFL head coach. We all remember how he soured on All-Pro guard Evan Mathis, and the Denver Broncos ended up receiving continued top-five guard play from a man who dominated the opposition in last week’s postseason win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Boone is younger than Mathis isn’t quite as good, and, as Gutierrez spitballed in the piece linked above, there might be a clash of personalities here. Nobody can project what Kelly wants or what Kelly will change after presumably learning some lessons following his prompt dismissal as the Eagles head man, so Boone’s impending free agency will be a quick case study in the dynamics of the 49ers organization this offseason.
Mathis, Boone, Osemele, Richie Incognito, and Ramon Foster look like the top five impending free agent guards this offseason, and Boone should be the second-most valuable of them when combining both age and ability as factors.
Everything comes down to cost, and that in itself will come down to how hard of a stance either party will take at the bargaining table.
I think the 49ers will let Boone test free agency and look to find a young guard or a free agent who is either cheaper or, in the case of “fit” being the underlying issue, meshes better with what they are looking for.
Allowing him to hit free agency will create a gaping hole for the 49ers, but it could allow them to be more flexible as they look to overhaul parts of their roster, particularly since replacing Boone would theoretically save them money that could be spent on positions that are emphasized more heavily in a pass-centric league.
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That said, Boone is one of the best pass protecting guards in the NFL right now, and he’s a known commodity. Letting him go is risky, especially for an organization that doesn’t have much in the form of stability right now.
If I were the 49ers, I would keep Boone, but, sadly, I think a split is more likely, though it’s so early in the process that we haven’t even seen rumors (via either the team or agent) spill into newspapers or the Twitterverse yet.