Between the noise - again - about Brandon Aiyuk requesting a trade, and presumed replacement first-round draft pick Ricky Pearsall going on the non-football injury list, the sheen of optimism that tends to surround teams as they report to training camp was largely extinguished. Rather than continuing to be depressed by the repetitious 49ers news, a glance around the NFL's top stories instead revealed something major that could impact the 49ers roster decisions and plans moving forward.
The Denver Broncos announced that they have signed Quinn Meinerz to a four-year, $80 million extension, keeping the 2021 draft choice on the team for the foreseeable future. This wasn't the first time that a player on the interior of the offensive line was handed a large contract - witness reputed 49ers target Robert Hunt's move to the Panthers in free agency, Lloyd Cushenberry's move to the Titans, or perhaps the initial standard-bearer, Quenton Nelson's big money extension from the Colts. Even within the division, the Rams handed a large contract to Jonah Jackson, after many years of underinvestment there.
Viewed in isolation, these deals could've been waved off as well-earned deals for key players, but with Meinerz now becoming the latest to put pen to paper, it appears what we're actually seeing is a departure from previously held wisdom that investment in the offensive line should traditionally be on tackles. While bookend tackles are still being paid at a hefty rate, there's no doubting that the discrepancy between the so-called premium positions others that round out the offensive line is continuing to close.
The trends in the free agency market of the last few years offer the best insight as to why - chiefly, the investment in increasingly highly paid interior pass rushers, particularly since the Super Bowl-winning success that the Los Angeles Rams achieved with frequent 49er nemesis Aaron Donald, as well as the Chiefs success behind phenom interior rusher Chris Jones, who's key snaps late in the Super Bowl are arguably the reason Patrick Mahomes is wearing another Super Bowl ring now, while the 49ers remain on a quest for their sixth. Jones, of course, after a season of campaigning for such, received a huge extension this offseason, and coupled with deals handed out to rising stars like Christian Wilkins and Justin Madubuike, who received big money from the Raiders and Ravens respectively, it's arguable that the defensive tackle market has never been more profitable.
The 49ers could also be considered standard-bearers in this trend, given 2023's huge free-agent splurge on then-Eagles defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. With shorter, quick-hitting passing games designed to neutralize edge rushers, it appears the latest step in the defensive arms race is to try and generate havoc in the interior, and at times, this can be more effective. There can't be many things more unsettling to a quarterback than pressure directly in their face following the snap, after all.
This affects the 49ers' ability to retain starting offensive linemen. The team has already seen former starting guard Laken Tomlinson parlay a good few years under Kyle Shanahan into a big contract with the Jets, and were then forced to replace him with the incumbent starting left guard Aaron Banks. Unfortunately, Banks now enters into his contract year, and looking at the money spent on his position, it seems plausible to suggest that his price tag may already be out of the 49ers range. Indeed, the team has often not prioritized the re-signing of any offensive linemen, particularly given the ease with which highly-paid tackle Mike McGlinchey's production was replicated (and in some cases improved upon), by the much cheaper and much less heralded Colton McKivitz.
It's unlikely that Banks returns, and his spot would be open to the recently drafted Dominick Puni, assuming that he doesn't beat out Jon Feliciano and Spencer Burford for right guard. Those expecting either Banks to re-sign on a big deal, or for him to be replaced by a high-round draft pick, are likely to be disappointed, because as 49ers offensive line coach Chris Foerster hinted at recently, under Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, the 49ers simply will not prioritize offensive linemen in either their free agency or draft approaches. It's easy to see the argument for this, given that the 49ers have so many positions and deals to sort out in the next few years. Spending inordinate amounts of money on the offensive line, particularly when there's already a highly-paid player at the position in Trent Williams, could arguably be considered a misdirection of funds.
That said, until the laws of the game change, the sport will always fundamentally run through the offensive line and your ability to protect the player who touches the ball on every single offensive snap - the quarterback. It's hard not to look at recent playoff failures and wonder if even a slight talent increase at the guard or center positions would've resulted in just a few key plays, such as the Zapruder-level scrutinised final 49ers offensive play in the Super Bowl, bouncing the opposite way.
In addition, consistently not keeping offensive line talent around beyond the limits of their rookie contract results in damage to chemistry between the offensive line, and provides a learning curve for any new additions, given how long it can take the Shanahan zone-blocking approach to click and have all five members work in harmony. This is sometimes evident on the field, particularly when the running game fails to get going in the early stages of a new season, although the 49ers coaches would probably argue that Christian McCaffrey covers that particular weakness up quite well.
There's virtue in zigging while others zag, of course - Bill Belichick, for instance, famously eschewed the increasing rise of the read option and spread concepts in the early parts of the 2010s to produce a system built around athletic tight ends - and that seems to be the 49ers approach here too - going against the grain of the league and trusting that their coaching and the aforementioned zone blocking scheme (frequently cited as a way of maximising limited talent on an offensive line, as in Mike Shanahan's Broncos teams, for example) can overcome a lack of investment in the position, freeing up cap money to help retain players at positions considered more important, such as edge rusher or cornerback.
The 49ers, as evidenced again this week, are approaching the offensive line in an increasingly different way to their competitors. It's an admirable and understandable idea, but will it continue to work, or will the game catch up with them? Looking around the league, it seems implausible that the ersatz method of line-building can stand, particularly as even Shanahan disciples like Sean McVay have begun to invest in the line, but ultimately, the only place we'll find out is on the field.