For 49ers, Anquan Boldin Deal Seems Inevitable

Mutual interest by team and wide receiver points to likely re-signing of 33-year-old for 2014 season in San Francisco

It seems so simple. The 49ers want wide receiver Anquan Boldin to stay with the team for 2014, and Boldin wants to stay, too.

Though that doesn’t always mean anything – agents, salary-cap restrictions and unreasonable demands from either side can surface to spoil even the sweetest relationships -- reports out of 49ers headquarters are that this indeed should be an easy re-signing.

Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reported this week that a deal should get done between the two parties with very little fuss.

“What I’m told is the 49ers are very interested in keeping Boldin and the interest is one that he returns,” Rapoport said on the NFL Network. “I would be surprised if there isn’t a deal between these two to lock him up.”

The 33-year-old Boldin, acquired from the Baltimore Ravens last offseason for a sixth-round draft pick, was one of general manager Trent Baalke’s best moves. Boldin had 85 catches for 1,179 yards and seven TDs in the regular season and paired with Michael Crabtree to give the Niners an excellent tandem of wideouts.

If the 49ers can bring Boldin back and add a quality deep-threat receiver in the draft, their offense would go into the 2014 season well-positioned to perform even better than in 2013 (when Crabtree missed most of the season).

“Though he’ll turn 34 in October, Boldin is a durable presence whose game isn’t predicated on speed to get separation,” wrote Dan Hanzus of NFL.com this week. “It’s no coincidence that both the Arizona Cardinals and Ravens struggled to fill the void after he left town. Barring an unforeseen bidder, expect Boldin to be lining up opposite Michael Crabtree in September.”

Boldin earned about $6 million in 2013 with the 49ers, and would likely stay for perhaps just a little more. As Mike Florio of NBC’s Pro Football Talk noted last month, Boldin indicated after the season that he loved his season with the 49ers. Boldin tweeted: “Thank you @49ers fans for embracing my family and I during our first year in San Francisco. Your support this year was amazing.”

As Florio wrote, the key phrase in Boldin’s tweet was “first year.”

That “implies there will be a second year,” wrote Florio.

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