The 49ers are apparently adding a veteran running back this offseason, but he’s not expected to contribute on the field in the fall.
Frank Gore plans to sign a one-day contract with the 49ers and retire with the team, he said in an Instagram Live Friday with Bovada’s Heidi Watney.
The 49ers’ all-time leading rusher said he expects the deal to happen within the next several months and hopes to join San Francisco’s front office after his retirement is official.
“I love looking at talent. I love evaluating talent and I love ball,” Gore said. “And they know that I know football players, what it’s supposed to take to be a football player.”
Gore, 38, is the third-leading rusher in NFL history, as he amassed exactly 16,000 yards and 100 touchdowns over a 16-year career. The first 10 years came with the 49ers and included Pro Bowl honors five times. He totaled 11,073 yards in a Niners jersey.
The 49ers drafted Gore in the third round out of Miami in 2005, and became the team’s starter in 2006 and rushed for a career-high 1,695 yards, the first of eight 1,000-yard seasons with the Niners. Gore was a key part of the 49ers teams that played in three consecutive NFC Championship Games from 2011-2013.
Following the 2014 season, the 49ers turned to Carlos Hyde to take over the backfield and Gore signed a three-year deal in Indianapolis. Gore started all 48 games for the Colts over those three seasons, outrushing Hyde, who started 36 games in San Francisco.
Gore then had one-year stops with the Dolphins, Bills and Jets, starting at least eight games each season until 2021, when he went unsigned.
He searched for teams leading into the 2021 season, but when no deal came, he turned his attention to boxing. He made his debut in the ring in December, being knocked out by former NBA All-Star Deron Williams.
Gore’s signature postseason with the 49ers came after the 2012 season, when he rushed for 90+ yards in all three games, scoring four touchdowns as the 49ers made a run to the Super Bowl.
