The San Francisco 49ers frustrated many fans by not using one of their top draft selections on an offensive lineman. General manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan eventually added an offensive lineman, but not until the third round, when Dominick Puni was selected.
It wasn't the bold move most mock drafts predicted. Analysts were left baffled by the 49ers' failure to adequately address what is seen as the team's biggest weakness. Instead, San Francisco used its first-round pick on wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, addressing a position already among the deepest on the team.
"Ultimately, San Francisco needs better offensive line play in 2024, and the only significant addition the team made there was third-round pick Dominick Puni," Pro Football Focus analyst Trevor Sikkema wrote in May. "It doesn't feel like San Francisco got better this offseason."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan joined Tim Kawakami's podcast, "The TK Show," and was asked about the perception toward the offensive line and if the criticism is justified.
"I've heard the narrative that we're ignoring the O-line and everything," Shanahan said. "If we felt the O-linemen was the best pick there, there's no doubt that's who we would take. But there's some O-linemen there, at the end of the first round, that you feel they have just as good of a chance as a guy at the end of the second round. One's a higher prospect and might have a higher ceiling, but not too concerned about the ceiling. I want to know if he's going to be a starting left tackle, a starting left guard, whatever, starting NFL player."
Earlier in the offseason, offensive line coach Chris Foerster stated that the 49ers prioritize investing in players who touch the football over offensive linemen, a philosophy he agrees with.
"This is my personal opinion, if they ask me, invest in guys that touch the ball, guys that can touch the ball and score touchdowns," Foerster shared. "And then there's a range of guys, second, third, fourth round, fifth round even, that we will find starting offensive linemen in."
After the draft, general manager John Lynch made it clear that when it came time for the 49ers to make a selection, there weren't top-tier prospects available who the team felt could beat out the current starters. Shanahan believes that if the 49ers drafted offensive linemen just to draft offensive linemen, the offense would be lacking in other areas.
"If we have a bunch of starting NFL linemen, there's no one who can score points," Shanahan remarked. "We're not going to have that good of an offense. I've never been on a team that was favored to win every game the whole year before the season started, and we've been that two years in a row. So what that tells me is people think we've got a really good roster. Well, if we were drafting only O-linemen, we wouldn't have as good of a roster.
"And one of the biggest things that drives me crazy throughout my whole career is being at places that just draft O-linemen in the first and second round because no one can really talk about whether they're big busts or not. Because you can be a top-10 pick at O-line and be very average, and you'll play for your five years, and it won't look like a bust. If you do that at a different position, you gotta move on, you gotta move them to backup, and that doesn't always look good.
"We don't really think in that way. We don't have a philosophy to avoid O-linemen. We just don't have a philosophy that says we're always gonna build inside out because you gotta establish that for the run game."
Shanahan noted that his offense has always boasted a successful rushing attack. That was certainly the case last season when Christian McCaffrey led the NFL with 1,459 rushing yards. Outside of an injury-plagued 2020 campaign, the 49ers' offense has featured a top-seven-or-better rushing attack every season since 2019.
"We want O-lineman, don't get me wrong," Shanahan clarified. "But you don't just get to pick whoever you want. And that's why I always go back to we have been favored in every game for two years in a row. Our roster is damn good. I wish, also, it looked like we'd invested all the same in O-line, and then, I feel like people wouldn't ask that question. But I bet we wouldn't be favored in 34 straight games in a row."