Cal Football: With Restructured 49ers Deal, Is Alex Mack Preparing to Retire?

Center Alex Mack reportedly has agreed to a restructured contract that will create $4 million in cap space for the 49ers and hints that the former Cal star may soon announce he is retiring.

ESPN’s Field Yates was first to report the news

Mack, 36, has agreed to a reworked contract that drops his base salary from $5 million to $1.12 million for the 2022 season, then from $3.35 million to $1.165 million in 2023.

According to Yates, the Niners needed the extra cap space in order to sign their 2022 NFL draft class.

But the kicker is that the move broadly suggests Mack plans to retire after a 13-year career in the league.

Here’s how NinersNation.com put it:

I doubt Mack willingly takes a pay cut if he’s going to play. Who knows when Mack plans to make an announcement, but it feels as though retirement is imminent.

The restructure means that $500,000 of his new 2022 deal now become a signing bonus, which he will collect this month.

Here’s further explanation from NinersNation.com:

This time last year, Weston Richburg retired on June 2. That helped the team split Richburg’s dead money into two years. Mack has done something similar. Now that we’re past June 1, the team would immediately save cap space. So, we await Mack’s decision.

Mack was drafted in the first round in 2009 by the Cleveland Browns and played his first seven seasons with the franchise. In 2016, he signed a five-year, $45 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons, with $28.5 million guaranteed.

He signed with the 49ers last year and started all 17 games at center for the team.

In fact, Mack has played 196 NFL games and started every one of them.

He has been good from the start as a pro, earning a spot on the 2009 All-Rookie team. A seven-time Pro Bowl selection, and a three-time second-team All-Pro selection by the Associated Press, Mack was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-2010s first team.

Mack started 39 consecutive games for Cal and graduated with a 3.61 grade-point average as a legal studies major. He was a three-time first-team All-Pac-10 selection and won the Draddy Trophy, known also as the “academic Heisman Trophy.”

Cover photo of Alex Mack by Darren Yamashita, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo