Alex Boone Wants To Resume Playing Career

Former 49ers, Vikings, and Cardinals guard Alex Boone wants to resume his NFL playing career, as the soon-to-be 33-year-old announced on Minnesota sports talk station SKOR North (h/t Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk). Boone has been working with the station recently, but he hopes to get back on the field.

Boone carved out a nice career for himself, especially considering he entered the league as a UDFA in 2009. Though he spent all of 2009 on the 49ers’ practice squad and appeared in just one game in 2010, he became San Francisco’s full-time starter at left guard in 2012, which ended in a Super Bowl appearance.

The Ohio State product was generally regarded as an above-average starter during his 49ers’ tenure, and he parlayed that success into a four-year, $26.8MM deal ($10MM guaranteed) with the Vikings in March 2016. But after a so-so year first season with Minnesota, the Vikes asked Boone to take a paycut and released him when he refused. He reportedly showed up to training camp out of shape, which certainly didn’t help matters.

He subsequently hooked on with the Cardinals and started 13 games for Arizona, and that was the last NFL action he saw. It’s unclear if there was any interest in him after his one-year stint in the desert.

It’s also unclear if there will be any interest now that he is almost 33 and is even further removed from his best years in San Francisco. There is always a need for experienced O-line depth, so it’s not inconceivable he could get some looks from a team that suffers an injury or two in training camp, but it still seems like something of a long shot.

Boone, though, is working on getting back to his playing weight in the hopes of getting a call.