Getting to know Weston Richburg, who signed Wednesday to become the 49ers starting center:
1. Concussion concern. A Week 4 concussion ended his fourth and final season with the New York Giants, who waited a month before putting him on injured reserve. “This was the first concussion I’ve ever had, honestly,” Richburg said. “I was feeling good near the end of the season last year. I’m excited to be here and move forward.” He started 50 of 51 games before his concussion.
2. Temper, temper? Richburg became the first player ejected for two unsportsmanlike penalties under a rule the NFL imposed in 2016. His landmark ejection came in a 2016 loss to Washington, with his second foul when he hit cornerback Josh Norman late from behind and said something to him after the play. Richburg took accountability afterward, telling NJ.com: “It’s on me. I can’t control how many flags they want to throw. I’ve got to be a leader and be in there for my team.”
3. Pay day or wedding day? Richburg described his 49ers move as “life changing” upon signing his five-year contract that pays him $16.5 million guaranteed and up to $47.5 million.
“I thought getting drafted was cool. I thought getting married was great. This is right up there with them,” Richburg told his hometown newspaper, the Amarillo Globe-News Obviously below getting married. It’s hard to put into words.” Richburg met his wife, Marlee, in college and they got married after his rookie season in March 2015.
4. Former quarterback. At Bushland High School — about 15 minutes outside Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle — Richburg was a quarterback and linebacker his freshman year before tearing an anterior cruciate ligament.
He sat out the next two seasons and returned as a two-way lineman and senior captain on a district-title winning team. Richburg told Giants.com about his quarterback days from fifth grade to ninth grade. “I was terrible. Really bad. I probably should’ve ran the ball a lot. I tried to throw and it didn’t go to well. It was fun, though.”
His position changed as did his body, going from 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds to 6-3, 240. “I was a lot smaller earlier on in high school,” Richburg said Thursday. “I hit a pretty good growth spurt. I let myself go a little bit and got a little bigger and kind of changed my whole direction. It’s fun to kind of reflect on that and think about that.”
5. Versatile athlete. In high school, he also lettered in basketball and track, the latter of which saw him run hurdles before excelling in the shot put. He won state honors with a school-record shot put of 60-feet, 1-inch. His shot-put career continued briefly in college.
6. College cornerstone. He started all 50 games (school record) in four years at Colorado State and was a three-time candidate for the Rimington Trophy which goes to the nation’s most outstanding center. Here a couple lineman-oriented stats that are impressive: 273 knockdown blocks and 39 touchdown-resulting blocks. His degree: animal science.
7. Senioritis. Richburg participated in a 2014 Senior Bowl that produced several heavyweights, including the 49ers’ two other free-agent additions this week, running back Jerick McKinnon and outside linebacker Jeremiah Attaochu. There also was quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, defensive backs Jimmie Ward and Dontae Johnson, linebacker Chris Borland and Richburg’s new NFC West menace, Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams.
Four years ago after the Senior Bowl, Weston Richburg identified one D-lineman who gave him fits. pic.twitter.com/XbjUEiZ3MZ
— Matt Maiocco (@MaioccoNBCS) March 13, 2018
8. Hog heaven. In February 2009, his pig won Grand Champion in Market Swine at the Southwestern Expo, according to a 2014 feature (on Richburg, not the pig) in Sports Illustrated. A few days earlier, he signed a letter of intent with Colorado State and became his high school’s first Division I football player.
9. Name calling. His name has proven a tongue twister for 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, who acknowledged that during Thursday’s press conference and said to him, “I’ve messed up your name 1,000 times in the last month.” Added general manager John Lynch: “At one point he was Reston Wichburg to Kyle.”
Not even that interlude could keep Shanahan from mispronouncing his center’s name a 1,001th time: “When you have a center in our offense that can play at the level that Reston can, Weston can, it’s a huge advantage.” Maybe Shanahan can just call him by his middle name: Blaine.
10. Scouting report. After acquiring Richburg, the 49ers traded away former starting center Daniel Kilgore to Miami. So what made Richburg, 26, so appealing?
Shanahan said: “When you have guys who can read shades on their own, when you don’t need the help of the guards and things like that, the type of personnel groupings you can get into and stuff, it adds a lot to your offense. I’ve been around some real good ones in my career. He’s put it all on tape and he looks right there with all those guys and that’s why I value him a ton off the tape.
“Didn’t know a ton about him until I turned on the tape and it was as good as I’ve seen. … Everything we found out, just from his work ethic and everything that I say that’s very important to us, he’s off the charts in those areas too. I think he can add a lot of things to our run game, to our pass game, and make a lot of other guy’s jobs easier as it is.”
