CAPTAIN SANTA CLARA: One of the 49ers’ most well-known players does not think offensive linemen are worth the high draft picks. That individual? He also serves as the offensive line coach for the group.
“This is my personal opinion — invest in guys that touch the ball, guys that can touch the ball and score touchdowns,” Chris Foerster said last week. “And then there’s a range of guys — second, third, fourth round, fifth round, even — that we will find starting offensive linemen in.”
This is likely the franchise’s mindset, as fans who have been waiting for the team to choose a tackle early in the draft in recent years likely suspected.
Everyone predicted two years ago that the 49ers would select a tackle with one of their three third-round selections. Rather than selecting an offensive lineman in the draft, they went with a tight end, a safety, and a kicker.
When it came to the last draft, many people predicted that the team will select an offensive tackle with selection No. 31. The 49ers made fun of Arizona offensive tackle Jordan Morgan the most, then Oklahoma tackle Tyler Guyton and Duke offensive lineman Graham Barton.
Nope. Prior to the draft, the 49ers did not spend a lot of time with any of them players, and all three of them left before the 49ers could use their roster. They ultimately decided on receiver Ricky Pearsall, who Foerster described as “a player that touches the ball.”
Not that they disregarded the offensive line, mind you. At pick No. 63 in the second round, they would have given Washington tackle Roger Rosengarten more thought, but the Baltimore Ravens selected him one pick ahead of them. They selected Dominick Puni, a collegiate lineman from Kansas, in the third round. However, they intend to use him as a guard, and when training camp starts the following month, he will be among the players vying for the starting right guard position. In the sixth round, the 49ers selected Jarrett Kingston of USC, another offensive tackle. This spring, he has primarily lined up at guard as well.
“Yeah, we looked at numerous guys throughout the process,” general manager John Lynch said after the draft. “I think when you’re drafting 31st, it’s oftentimes hard to find a tackle that you really love.”
The mindset appears to be reminiscent of the Denver Broncos teams of the 1990s, led by Mike Shanahan. For instance, the Broncos, who won the Super Bowl in 1997, featured two outstanding receivers in Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey in addition to future Pro Football Hall of Famers John Elway and Terrell Davis at quarterback and running back, respectively. The offensive line that kicked off that season’s pivotal match? It featured Tony Jones, a tackle who had signed with the NFL as an undrafted free agent, two past 10th-round picks, and one seventh-round pick.
“Could you put five first-rounders across the front? I don’t know that we have to, to have success,” said Foerster, who coached under Mike Shanahan in Washington from 2010 to ’13. “The fact that you can throw a short pass to Deebo (Samuel), even though the right tackle’s getting beat, it ends up being a 60-yard touchdown.”
What has transpired at right tackle in previous years may have contributed to that thinking.
During the Kyle Shanahan era, the 49ers have just ever selected an offensive lineman with a first-round pick: Mike McGlinchey, who they selected at No. 9 in 2018. They let McGlinchey leave via free agency in the previous summer, and Colton McKivitz, a fifth-round pick in 2020, took his place.
McKivitz may not be as skilled as his predecessor in particular when it comes to run blocking. However, the difference is not as significant as their different draft positions might imply. According to Pro Football Focus, McGlinchey allowed the Broncos to have 49 QB pressures and six sacks during the previous campaign. For the 49ers, McKivitz gave up 46 and 9 in the regular season.
Foerster made a similar case by citing right guard.
“The right guard makes a difference — we’ve talked about it before — but that’s where we’re able to find fourth- and fifth-round draft picks,” he said. “How dominant is the difference between pick 34 versus pick 54 in offensive line play? That’s what you’re trying to balance all the time.”
In fact, the 49ers’ offensive line is stacked with middle- or late-round selections. Ben Bartch, Spencer Burford, and Jon Feliciano were all selected in the fourth round to enter the league. In the sixth round, Nick Zakelj was selected by the 49ers. Before joining the 49ers, center Jake Brendel was with four different clubs after going undrafted in 2016.
Aaron Banks, a 2021 second-round pick who is set to become a free agent in March, is the lone player selected in the first round out of this bunch. It is difficult to imagine the 49ers offering Banks a big contract to stay around, and the intention might be to replace him with Puni in 2025 given that they previously allowed guard Laken Tomlinson and center McGlinchey to walk in free agency.
The 49ers have not scrimped all across the offensive line, of course. In 2020, they acquired Trent Williams by sending two draft picks to Washington. The following year, they inked him to a six-year, $138 million contract, which at the time was the largest offensive lineman contract in the league.
The outlier for the previous Broncos units was comparable. Although four players who started in the 1997 Super Bowl came from modest backgrounds, Gary Zimmerman, the team’s left tackle, was selected in the second round of the USFL (he was Steve Young’s Los Angeles Express teammate) before being selected in the first round of an NFL supplemental draft. 2008 saw Zimmerman’s induction into the Hall of Fame.
Williams appears to be headed for the Hall of Fame as well. It is less certain, though, how long he will continue to play. The previous season, he expressed his desire to be selected to the Pro Bowl for a record-tying 12th time as an offensive tackle. And what will happen if he succeeds in doing that in 2024? At the end of the season, he will turn 36.
With no Trent Williams this spring, the 49ers’ left tackles have been Jaylon Moore (76) and Brandon Parker (75). pic.twitter.com/9OWi77YDcI
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) June 5, 2024
So, to recap, a lot of draftniks believed that the 49ers would select a tackle in the first round of the April draft in order to select Williams’ apparent successor. Right now, Jaylon Moore and Brandon Parker are his best backups, but neither of them has a contract for the upcoming campaign.
The 49ers do not need five outstanding blockers, as Foerster pointed out. However, they also take the chance of being overly economical in their role.
“There’s a line below which, with offensive line play, that if you just drop a little bit below it, it’s a gaping hole,” he said. “All of a sudden, you’re like, ‘He can’t block anybody.’ And now we’ve got a major problem. But as long as they’re at that line and just above it, you can survive it.”
(Top photo of Dominick Puni and Ben Bartch: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
