49ers Sign Center Weston Richburg to Five-Year Deal

The San Francisco 49ers will sign former New York Giants center Weston Richburg to a five-year deal once NFL free agency opens tomorrow, reports Adam Schefter of ESPN.

It is unclear whether or not Richburg will play center for the 49ers, considering the organization just agreed to a contract extension with center Daniel Kilgore recently. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said just last week that he fully expected Kilgore to be the team’s center Week 1, but that could simply just be lip service. San Francisco does have an opening on it’s line at guard to make things interesting, however. Richburg does have some experience playing guard in the NFL.

Richburg was limited to just four games last season with the Giants due a concussion, and grew unhappy with the team once he was placed on injured reserve because of it in November. Richburg personally thought he was close to returning to game action before his season was shut down, and he was indeed cleared by team doctors several weeks after his designation on injured reserve was set in stone.

New York, it appeared, was ready to move on from Richburg in free agency, as the play of Brett Jones in Richburg’s absence for the Giants last year was exceptional, making the 26-year-old Richburg and his services to the team, expendable.

The Giants used the 43rd overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft to select Richburg, who in-addition to the 49ers, also drew interest from the New York Jets. Richburg was ranked as the 31st best free agent this off-season, per our official free agent rankings list.

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