49ers Center Alex Mack to Retire After 13 Seasons in the NFL

The inevitable finally occurs.

Alex Mack is set to retire after 13 seasons in the NFL according to Michael Silver of Bally Sports. Mack goes out on his own terms with a pretty nice final season with an NFC championship and Pro Bowl appearance.

Along with retiring, Mack cuts the 49ers some slack on his way out. Mack agreed to a reworked deal in which his base salary drops from $5M to $1.12M this year and $3.35M to $1.165M next year. The Niners add over $4M in cap space because of it. In his last moments playing, Mack helps out the team.

For months, the future of Mack was hovering over the 49ers in great mystery. Will he return for one more year? Or will he choose to hang his cleats up? The answer is now finally clear, although like Kyle Shanahan indicated at Day 2 of OTAs, we all had a "pretty good idea" as to what was happening with Mack.

And so did the 49ers.

While they didn't draft a clear-cut center, they do have a plan to incorporate players at center. Starting a rookie there, like a Nick Zakelj, is not out of the realm of possibility. John Lynch even said that rookie could get the hang of being the starter as they don't put too much on their plate. A bit of a downplay I would say as the 49ers have needed adequate center play to see success with their offensive line.

Jake Brendel and Daniel Brunskill have also been mentioned by Lynch as players who can step in. Even though the 49ers most likely expected Mack not to return, their contingency plan for it is not an adequate one. Weston Richburg and Mack proved that the offensive line is efficient with solid centers. When those two weren't the starters, they struggled with Ben Garland and Brunskill.

Perhaps they sign J.C. Tretter? Salary cap maneuvering is going to be needed for that as I would suspect the freed up money from Mack will be used for the 2022 draft class.

Whatever the case, Mack had an excellent career. Tip of the cap.