San Francisco 49ers: Time to Be Thankful for Anquan Boldin

On March 12, 2013, the San Francisco 49ers traded a sixth-round pick to the Baltimore Ravens.  The Ravens then dealt that pick to get outside linebacker Arthur Brown, who has appeared in 16 games over the last two years.

The 49ers got Anquan Boldin, who has kept the 49ers in the playoff race for two straight years.

The trade for Boldin is probably the 49ers’ second-best trade of all time, only behind the deal that brought Steve Young to town.  Can you imagine 2013 without Boldin?  With Michael Crabtree down, the 49ers would have been left with the likes of Kyle Williams and Mario Manningham as their starting receivers.  They wouldn’t have sniffed the playoffs, much less been one pass away from the Super Bowl.

His impact continues to be felt in 2014, where he has been Colin Kaepernick’s favorite and most consistent target:

Player	Tgt	Rec	%Ct	Yds	YAC	TD	Drop	MT
Anquan Boldin	90	65	72.2%	825	273	4	7	11
Michael Crabtree	78	48	61.5%	567	197	4	11	9
Stevie Johnson	41	32	78.0%	407	171	3	1	5
Brandon Lloyd	23	11	47.8%	262	63	1	0	1
Bruce Ellington	7	5	71.4%	54	37	1	0	1
Kassim Osgood	1	0	0.0%	0	0	0	0	0

I don’t normally put missed tackles on charts when comparing receivers, but I think it speaks somewhat to Boldin’s toughness.  He doesn’t simply make people miss tackles, he smashes through them.  Perhaps the most Anquan Boldin-esque play of the season happened in the fourth quarter against Washington, when Boldin took an illegal shot from Ryan Clark over the middle, stayed up, and kept going.

Obviously, it’s not ideal for your star receiver to be taking hits like that, but as Boldin said to the press after the game, this was a really important play: "At that point, the game's on the line. There's no way that I cannot go for the ball at that point. You're called upon in that moment and your teammates are expecting you to come through for them. It's part of football."

The game on the line was right—according to Pro Football Reference’s win probability system, that play increased the 49ers' odds of winning from 42.4 percent to 70.2 percent.  That’s the fourth-biggest increase of the season for the 49ers, behind only three plays from the New Orleans game.  It was a huge catch at the most critical of points.

Boldin has made a habit of doing that in his time in San Francisco.  Since his arrival in 2013, the 49ers have attempted 257 passes on third or fourth down.  Boldin’s been the target on 77 of those, and made 54 catches, by far the most on the team.

It’s not just being targeted, it’s the efficiency of those targets too.  Of those 54 catches, 48 resulted in either a first down or a touchdown—that’s 88.9 percent of his receptions on those critical, high-leverage plays.  Crabtree only has 19 such catches in the past two years, and Vernon Davis has only 14.  Boldin’s been the man on the spot whenever the 49ers have needed a big play.  He is the NFL leader in such catches over the past two years.

Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

He added three more against Washington in Week 12, including a crucial 14-yard reception on 3^rd-and-7 halfway through the third quarter with the 49ers pinned deep in their own territory.  It’s getting to the point where you wonder why teams don’t simply triple-cover Boldin on every crucial passing play, because he can be counted on again and again to make the catch at the most crucial times.

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News goes so far as to call Boldin the 49ers’ MVP this season, and he has a strong argument.  Boldin always seems to show up when the team needs him the most, and he adds a veteran presence to what is, generally, a very young team this season.  While I can’t agree that a cog in the 22^nd-ranked passing offense is the team MVP, especially when the defense is playing at an elite level, there’s no doubt this would be a very different team without Boldin performing like a world-beater.

His teammates and coaches sang his praises in postgame interviews.  Jim Harbaugh called him a “shining star, a stalwart,” making great catches in traffic that no one else makes.  Kaepernick said that Boldin has “proven time and time again that he's a reliable receiver. He's always a person that's going to make big plays, and he did right there for his team.”

Antoine Bethea called him a leader and a great player, saying that Boldin “doesn't say much. He is the type of guy that shows by his actions at practice every day, working hard, always out there early on the field. When game time comes, he comes out and plays and makes numerous amounts of plays on third downs. He is a great leader for us."

USA TODAY Sports

Boldin is the type to lead with his play on the field more than fiery pregame speeches, but one of his philosophies has permeated the team. 

Boldin keeps talking about “one-game seasons”—that is, to focus on one game at a time and let the rest of the schedule shake itself out.  That’s absolutely the right attitude for the players to take.  While fans and analysts can try to break down all the potential scenarios, the 49ers just to concentrate on winning Thursday against Seattle, and then next Sunday against Oakland and so forth—one at a time.

It’s become a mantra—Harbaugh has been caught repeating it, and other players have used very similar language over the past couple weeks.  If this 49ers team can be anywhere near as tough as Boldin is, they’ll recover from all their offseason woes and on-field injuries to make the playoffs.

With Thanksgiving approaching, it’s time to reflect on what we’re thankful for.  The San Francisco 49ers should be thankful for a day back in March 2013 when they made a trade that has decisively altered the course of the past two seasons.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers.  Follow him @BryKno on twitter.