The San Francisco 49ers made a move ahead of training camp to lock in tackle Joe Staley with a two year contract extension.
“In today’s NFL, it is rare for a player to play his entire career with one team,” said 49ers general manager Trent Baalke. “With this extension, Joe will likely be a 49er for life. He is a three-time All-Pro and core member of our football team. His commitment and professionalism have been great assets to our team and our community. This extension reflects our philosophy of investing in our core players.”
The question is if Staley and the 49ers can get over the hurdle, having been to three consecutive NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl, they’ve failed to claim football’s top prize.
“There’s definitely urgency, we know that,” Staley told reporters in a conference call regarding his new contract, via Pro Football Talk. “The quality of players we have, the quality of coaches we have, we’re all very familiar with each other. There’s no ‘figuring it out.’ There’s no ‘we’ll see.’ We all know that we are a very talented football team and that we have very high expectations. And we set the expectations the highest and that’s the Super Bowl.”
Staley has a plan on how they can get there too.
“We have to close out those games this year,” Staley said. “We have to find a way to win those close games and find a way to close it out. So, I think that’s something that we’re definitely going to be focusing on in training camp and just work with an extra sense of urgency. That’s probably the main focus at training camp.”