O-line issues too big to ignore
What’s a young, inexperienced quarterback’s best friend as he embarks upon his first season as an NFL starting quarterback?
It might be a great tight end, for short, repeatable gains between the number. The 49ers have that.
It might be elite pass-catching weapons — big play makers — who can mess a defense up in every way. The 49ers have those guys, too.
It might be a top defense, capable of winning a game even when the offense sputters. The 49ers go into this season with one of those.
But what about an offensive line that can protect the young quarterback and give him time to not just acclimate to the NFL game, but time to throw the ball to that tight end or big-play receiver?
If training camp and the team’s three preseason gamers were indicators of what’s to come in the 2022 regular season, the 49ers do not have one of those.
The 49ers’ offensive line turned in a pernicious preseason performance over the last few weeks. And while there is reason to believe the best is yet to come for the five-man unit up front, there should still be serious concerns about their play heading into the Niners’ Week 1 game against the Chicago Bears on Sept. 11.
The good news is that 49ers left tackle Trent Williams is the best in the game — at his position and perhaps at all positions. He had a nearly flawless season in 2021, and he’ll need to do the same in 2022. There’s no reason to believe he won’t come close.
But can he play all five spots on the line?
The Niners go into the season with serious questions at the four other offensive line positions. Going left to right:
• Left guard Aaron Banks, a second-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, was handed a starting job — despite not playing a snap last season — when the 49ers let Laken Tomlinson walk in free agency this spring. He’s done little to validate that faith in training camp.
Bank’s preseason culminated with him trading first-team reps with undrafted free agent rookie Jason Poe in practice. In preseason games, Banks was the clear No. 1, but his play was even worse.
Pro Football Focus, an NFL grading site, tracks every NFL snap, even the ones in the preseason. Of all guards who have taken more than 50 snaps this preseason, only three have posted worse pass-blocking grades than Banks (28.9 out of 100). Many in Banks’ company at the bottom of that list will be cut before Tuesday. Only Banks is expected to be a starter.
The positive for Banks is that he run-blocked well this preseason — 27th in the NFL as of Friday — but Poe, the diminutive project out of Mercer, did just as well in that area and significantly better as a pass protector in his 77 snaps.
The competition is such in preseason that the snaps of Poe and Banks cannot be considered apples-to-apples, but Banks’ underwhelming performance makes it fair to wonder if he is a lemon.
• Jake Brendel won the starting center job in a landslide over Dan Brunskill, a prudent decision from the 49ers. He’s looked just fine in the middle of the line. Even PFF likes him.
But it cannot be forgotten that Brendel is a soonto-be 30-year-old journeyman center with only 16 games of NFL experience under his belt. Yes, he might have experience being in the league, but he lacks the at-the-lineof-scrimmage knowledge you would want in front of a first-year starting quarterback like Lance. He doesn’t make up for it with the blocking prowess to cover for Banks or the Niners’ presumed starting right tackle, rookie Spencer Burford.
It speaks volumes to the issues the Niners have on their offensive line that Brendel in the middle can be treated like a known entity — a non-issue — going into this season.
He’s not a kid, but he only has 250 NFL career snaps at center and has only started three games in his career.
Again, I think he’s been good and is worthy of the starting spot, but for another team, this would be a much larger red flag. For the Niners, it barely registers.
• The star of training camp has been right guard Spencer Burford, a fourth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft out of Texas-San Antonio. The Niners gave Burford the starting right tackle job at the beginning of camp as an experiment, but he’s impressed enough in practices to hold the job throughout camp. He’s likely to be the Niners’ starting right guard in Week 1.
But he’s still a rookie, and he was virtually unchallenged at right guard, thanks to the concern the Niners coaches had at left guard and the center competition between Brendel and Dan Brunskill.
Now, Burford can be an impressive run blocker, but the Niners’ three preseason games showed that his pass protection needs a lot of work. In only 40 passing snaps, he allowed more hurries than any other guard in the league and the third-most quarterback pressures.
If the rest of the Niners’ offensive line were stable, playing Burford at right guard wouldn’t be a big issue. But having both guard positions be this potentially unstable heading into the season puts more weight on Brendel and the Niners’ two tackles. It’s a weight I’m not sure right tackle Mike McGlinchey can bear.
• McGlinchey tore his quad last season — a brutal injury that’s relatively rare in the NFL. It was always going to be a question if McGlinchey could return to his old form after having the quad surgically repaired this offseason. But he returned to camp at a solid playing weight, and had been back at his starting right tackle spot, moving relatively well before the Niners’ first preseason game.
McGlinchey only played one series of one preseason game before exiting the game because of a knee injury. And while he looked good moving in the run game in that one series, the drive was capped when he was blown up with a forearm shiver to the chest by fringe player Kobe Jones.
That knee injury means McGlinchey is not guaranteed to play in Week 1. That’s a problem.
But the tough pass-protection snap — yes, that one — could portend another issue.
McGlinchey’s pass protection has been suspect at best throughout his career. His biggest issue is anchoring — holding his ground. His footwork has been on point, but his lower body hasn’t been strong enough to hold off power rush moves in seasons past.
Now he has to anchor with a surgically repaired quad. Forgive me for being skeptical that will work. Add in the knee injury and you have a lot of lower-body issues that McGlinchey, historically, cannot afford.
The Niners have backups — Colton McKivitz, Jaylon Moore, Brunskill — but even though San Francisco will be the only team in the NFL to keep three swing tackles on the roster, they can’t feel comfortable playing any at right tackle for an extended period.
Not with a rookie quarterback, who is still learning the speed of the NFL game, behind them.
This might all work out. Perhaps guard is truly unimportant to the Niners’ offense. Maybe the kids at those spots will flourish once the real games start. Maybe McGlinchey is back and stronger than ever — he just needs the snaps to show it. Maybe Brendel is a late bloomer who just needed a chance.
Maybe Lance’s running ability mitigates the need for good pass protection. Or maybe Shanahan is just really, really good at drawing up plays and he can work around these problems.
All of these things could be true.
But the 49ers need nearly all of them to be true at once at the start of this season.
So what’s a young quarterback’s best friend?
It’s probably his legs.