With preseason preparations more than halfway over, the holdout of 49ers guard Alex Boone continues. While not much new has emerged regarding the impasse (a recent report suggested that other teams have interest in trading for Boone), a pair of competing reports from Monday shows that the parties remain dug in.
Gil Brandt of NFL.com reported that the 49ers have offered Boone a contract that would place him among the 12 highest-paid guards. Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com reports that, if such a deal truly had been offered, it would have been accepted a long time ago.
An unnamed source told Maiocco that the 49ers have offered Boone an extension to his current deal, apparently with new money that would kick in after the two remaining years of his current contract, at $2 million in 2014 and $1.2 million in 2015. Maiocco explains that the 49ers don’t like to tear up remaining contracts and to replace them with new deals.
Of course, that’s what they did with quarterback Colin Kaepernick, taking the last year of his rookie contract at roughly $1 million and adding roughly $12 million. Then again, Kaepernick’s structure was so ridiculously team-friendly that the 49ers would have been crazy to not seize the opportunity to get him signed through 2020 at a time when he was only 16 regular-season games away from hitting the open market or forcing application of the franchise tag.
Speaking of Kaepernick, it’s hard not to wonder how he feels about the 49ers’ decision to not use some of the cash and cap space he deliberately left on the table so that he’d have help around him. Especially when the guy holding out is one of the five guys who helps Kaepernick avoid getting injured.