Devey named starter at guard
When the 49ers acquired Jordan Devey in a trade with the Patriots two weeks ago, the offensive lineman noted it was the preferred way to leave an NFL employer.
“It’s definitely a better feeling than getting cut,” Devey said. “I’ve been cut before, so it’s a definitely a better feeling when it’s like, ‘Oh, somebody else wants me.’ ”
As it turns out, the 49ers don’t just want Devey on the team. They want the new guy who was released twice by the Ravens in 2013 to be their starting right guard when they open the regular season Sept. 14 against the Vikings at Levi’s Stadium.
In a mildly shocking move, head coach Jim Tomsula said Devey, 27, would assume that starting spot, despite these numbers in two preseason games since joining the 49ers: zero starts, nine snaps with the first-team offense and 32 snaps overall.
Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Staley acknowledged the obvious: Continuity could be an issue.
“We have brought in a guy late in the year, so it’s going to be a work in prog-
ress.” Staley said. “It’s not like we’ve played five years together. But at the end of the day, you’re responsible for your play on the football field. You’re responsible for what you’re doing out there. And that continuity and all that stuff is sometimes overblown.
“We feel confident with the talent that he has and what he’s shown us on the football field and the practice field. We expect him to go out there and play high-level football.”
Devey (6-foot-6, 320 pounds), who entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2013, made four starts at guard for New England last year (three at right guard). In 306 snaps, he allowed one sack, three quarterback hits, nine hurries and received a -19.2 overall grade from Pro Football Focus. He spent 2013 on New England’s practice squad.
So why anoint the unheralded Devey, with whom starting center Marcus Martin said he’s taken “one or two snaps” in practice? The 49ers clearly feel they don’t have a better Week 1 option.
Joe Looney, 25, started the first two preseason games at right guard, and rookie sixthround pick Ian Silberman, 22, started against the Broncos on Saturday before Devey replaced him on the final drive of the first half. Another option, guard Brandon Thomas, 24, is a 2014 third-round pick who didn’t play last year because of a torn ACL.
Tomsula, who cited Devey’s calmness, suggested the 49ers didn’t want to start a young player in a real game before he was ready.
“There’s a fine line there between getting to a negative,” Tomsula said. “A guy that you know is going to be a really good football player and you’re trying to push him faster than he can go.
“And you get him out there, and now you’re talking about a whole new thing. Now you’re talking about ruining a guy, or a setting a guy back. And now you’ve got a guy that’s paranoid and a nervous wreck when he gets out there.”
The 49ers’ offensive line has been a bit of wreck in the preseason. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been routinely harassed, which helps explain his stat line: 5-of-13 for 40 yards. Part of the issue is the absence of starting center Daniel Kilgore, who will miss the season’s first six games, at a minimum, after he was placed on the physically unable to perform list Monday with an ankle injury.
“You guys see it — there’s some things we’ve got to clean up,” Kilgore said. “But I think that’s across the board” on offense.
Devey has a unique background: Before playing at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah (he later transferred to Memphis), he hadn’t played football in more than five years. He didn’t play the sport in high school because he was diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter disease, which involves a swelling of the shinbone, just below the knee. After high school, the accomplished tuba player turned down several music scholarships and went on a two-year Mormon mission.
The 49ers now hope the lineman with a one-of-a-kind past can excel as their No. 1 right guard.
“I’m trying to do whatever I can to play football for as long as I can,” Devey said. “Coming in here, the mentality that I had was to come in here and earn a job. To work my butt off and try to make this possible.
“Now that that’s happening, it doesn’t change any of the mentality that I have. I’m still going to work as hard as I have, if not more, to do whatever I can to help the line and help the team.”
“We feel confident with the talent that he has and what he’s shown us on the football field and the practice field.”
Joe Staley, on linemate Jordan Devey