Trent Williams will be 36 at the start of the 2024 NFL season. While retirement isn't on his mind just yet, the San Francisco 49ers must consider a succession plan for left tackle.
NFL Media's Bucky Brooks unveiled his final mock draft, projecting the San Francisco 49ers to select former Arizona offensive tackle Jordan Morgan with the No. 31 overall pick as their eventual replacement for Williams.
"With Trent Williams entering the twilight of his career, the 49ers have to find an eventual replacement on the edge," Brooks noted. "Morgan is a sound blocker at the point of attack with diverse skills that could enable him to play on either side of the offensive line."
This selection also provides competition for Colton McKivitz on the right side until Morgan's transition to the left side materializes. There's a need for improvement at right tackle, with McKivitz showing inconsistency last season, allowing nine sacks and 59 pressures.
While McKivitz came on strong toward the end of the 2023 regular season, earning a 74.4 average overall grade from Pro Football Focus, he earned a 63.5 average overall grade in the previous games and a 62.8 overall grade in the postseason.
Morgan earned career-high overall (83.5) and pass-blocking (87.3) grades from Pro Football Focus during his final season with the Wildcats. The 6-foot-5, 311-pound lineman allowed only three sacks and 31 pressures over his last two seasons.
At the NFL Scouting Combine, Morgan posted a 40-yard dash time of 5.04 seconds, a vertical jump of 28 inches, and a broad jump of 9 feet, 2 inches.
When asked about the draft's surplus of talented tackles and the 49ers' need to strengthen that position, general manager John Lynch emphasized versatility among linemen as an asset.
"I think it's good tackles. It's good linemen," Lynch said on Monday. "The interesting thing with those linemen in this draft, we think a lot of them have flexibility to be tackles and/or guards. So that's nice that you take somebody with some versatility."
Recognizing the team's need to plan ahead, Lynch stressed the importance of wisely using their draft picks.
"We've got to be smart with that in terms of how we allocate our resources," Lynch explained. "We have 10 picks. You start asking yourself how many of those can make our team and how do we want to approach that? That's part of what makes this whole thing so fun and enjoyable."