Wide receiver Anquan Boldin turns 35 in October, but the 49ers don’t have to worry about him adding his name to the list of their players who have retired this year.
Boldin said Wednesday that he feels great and feels he’s playing at a high level, so there’s no internal reason for him to call it a career. And the rush of changes to the 49ers roster and coaching staff isn’t pushing him out the door either. Boldin echoed teammate Darnell Dockett’s belief that the team can still “be right in the hunt” with the talent that’s on hand and that a key part of making that happen is moving past the offseason turmoil by focusing on the players that will actually determine the team’s fate this season.
“Honestly, man, you move on,” Boldin said, via the Sacramento Bee. “You have no choice. You’re definitely going to miss those guys. You love being teammates with them, you love competing with them. But at the end of the day, you have to move on. And you have to concern yourself with the guys that are in the locker room. You’ve got to be able to prepare those guys as best as possible to get ready to play.”
One part of preparing the guys still around that Boldin isn’t sweating is quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s throwing mechanics. Boldin said people make “a big stink about it,” but that it’s the receiver’s job to catch the football however it is thrown. He also talked about the speed his fellow wideouts Torrey Smith and Jerome Simpson bring to the offense and how it “will open a lot of things up for us.”
Boldin’s opinion that one of those things can be a playoff spot isn’t a widely held one at this point, but, as he said, there’s no choice but to move on and have faith in the fact that their record will be determined in the fall and not in the middle of June.