49ers Offensive Line

Originally posted by dlance:
This is an average OL with Trent William playing. Trent has missed games every year he's been with the 49er. He is most likely going to miss games.
Rate the player
Trent William Top 5 Tackle
Colton McKivitz somewhere in the bottom 32 no a bad player not great I like him and he is a great player to have on the team.
Jake Brendel bottom 15 to 30 probably ranked around 25 ?
Dominick Puni top 15 Guard if he plays like he did last year or better.
Who is the Other Guard? Probably bottom 32
Whoever is going to be the back up Tackle is not as good as Colton McKivitz . This is the biggest problem I see. When they have an Injury they are in trouble, because they have no depth. If Ben Bartch is the starting left guard and get injured who is his back up ? Zakelj ? Burford? Hennessy? Austen Pleasants? 7th rounder Connor Colby?? Bartch and Trent are out injured what then ?

McKivitz got better last year and played better as the season went on. He should be better this year than last.
Brendel doesn't impress, but if he beats the 4 other guys on the roster who have snaps at C then he's not bad.
Puni should be better.
Bartch is the other guard and was really good in limited time last year. He looked better than Banks.

Burford and Pleasants have been good so far.

Every team has a big drop when a star gets injured. The question is will the years of training pay off.

I was hoping someone would take Brendel's job, but I felt relatively good about the rest of the starters.

It seems entirely possible to me that Puni could take over LT when Trent steps away, because if he doesn't move to LT the 49ers are not going to re-sign him since he'll price himself off the team.

I think McKivitz could well price himself off the team too, and I think he's a FA next year.

Originally posted by Scoots:
I was hoping someone would take Brendel's job, but I felt relatively good about the rest of the starters.

It seems entirely possible to me that Puni could take over LT when Trent steps away, because if he doesn't move to LT the 49ers are not going to re-sign him since he'll price himself off the team.

I think McKivitz could well price himself off the team too, and I think he's a FA next year.

I'd be shocked if they moved Puni outside. I expect a healthy dose of OL talent to be infused next off season. Colton may price himself out as a FA, but if Trent does move on after this season they might invest in Colton.

Hennessy is an intriguing center option. I was a big fan of him during the draft. I think he actually played pretty well as a healthy starter in 2021 into 2022. Knee and back injuries have hurt his development, wonder if he's actually participating in camp right now (or still nursing an injury)?

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by Scoots:
I was hoping someone would take Brendel's job, but I felt relatively good about the rest of the starters.

It seems entirely possible to me that Puni could take over LT when Trent steps away, because if he doesn't move to LT the 49ers are not going to re-sign him since he'll price himself off the team.

I think McKivitz could well price himself off the team too, and I think he's a FA next year.

I'd be shocked if they moved Puni outside. I expect a healthy dose of OL talent to be infused next off season. Colton may price himself out as a FA, but if Trent does move on after this season they might invest in Colton.

Hennessy is an intriguing center option. I was a big fan of him during the draft. I think he actually played pretty well as a healthy starter in 2021 into 2022. Knee and back injuries have hurt his development, wonder if he's actually participating in camp right now (or still nursing an injury)?

I just think they don't want to spend big money at any position other than LT, and Puni could probably do the job and is the best young OL on the team so far.

Heard a few beat guys raving about Pleasants so we'll have to watch what he does too.

Haven't seen anything on Hennessy

Trent, Burford
Bartch, Colby
Brendel, Hennessy
Puni, Moss
McKivitz, Pleasants

Not really happy with penciling in Moss and Colby as backups. I think the OTs are most likely Pleasants and Burford with Zakelj and Dillard losing out even though I like them fine, Zakelj in particular because the team is invested with developing him. Burford has been practicing exclusively at OT which makes me think they would rather not shift him back to LG if they don't have to. Alarcon and Gutierrez are not close. Johnson is 28 years old, on his 5th <?> team and has 4 total NFL snaps ... not likely to make it. Nugent I would love to beat out Hennessy, but it doesn't look likely.

They are pretty clearly betting on Foerster.

Originally posted by Scoots:

Originally posted by dlance:
This is an average OL with Trent William playing. Trent has missed games every year he's been with the 49er. He is most likely going to miss games.
Rate the player
Trent William Top 5 Tackle
Colton McKivitz somewhere in the bottom 32 no a bad player not great I like him and he is a great player to have on the team.
Jake Brendel bottom 15 to 30 probably ranked around 25 ?
Dominick Puni top 15 Guard if he plays like he did last year or better.
Who is the Other Guard? Probably bottom 32
Whoever is going to be the back up Tackle is not as good as Colton McKivitz . This is the biggest problem I see. When they have an Injury they are in trouble, because they have no depth. If Ben Bartch is the starting left guard and get injured who is his back up ? Zakelj ? Burford? Hennessy? Austen Pleasants? 7th rounder Connor Colby?? Bartch and Trent are out injured what then ?

McKivitz got better last year and played better as the season went on. He should be better this year than last.
Brendel doesn't impress, but if he beats the 4 other guys on the roster who have snaps at C then he's not bad.
Puni should be better.
Bartch is the other guard and was really good in limited time last year. He looked better than Banks.

Burford and Pleasants have been good so far.

Every team has a big drop when a star gets injured. The question is will the years of training pay off.

Got to hand it to Foester for polishing the turds.

Great rosy view of everyone getting better. Thats realistic.

Lots of depth behind the back ups.

Originally posted by TD49ers:
Got to hand it to Foester for polishing the turds.

Great rosy view of everyone getting better. Thats realistic.

Lots of depth behind the back ups.

I'm used to tackle being paper thin and guard being deep ... now there are multiple centers and tackles and guard is paper thin.

The waiver wire is going to be watched closely.

At least it's depth that is the issue and not starters.

Originally posted by TD49ers:
Got to hand it to Foester for polishing the turds.

Great rosy view of everyone getting better. Thats realistic.

Lots of depth behind the back ups.

Honestly based on what Forester has been given talent wise he's been a damn good OL coach. His philosophy on drafting OL is the problem.

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by TD49ers:
Got to hand it to Foester for polishing the turds.

Great rosy view of everyone getting better. Thats realistic.

Lots of depth behind the back ups.

Honestly based on what Forester has been given talent wise he's been a damn good OL coach. His philosophy on drafting OL is the problem.

Has Foerster said what his draft philosophy is?

Originally posted by Scoots:

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by TD49ers:
Got to hand it to Foester for polishing the turds.

Great rosy view of everyone getting better. Thats realistic.

Lots of depth behind the back ups.

Honestly based on what Forester has been given talent wise he's been a damn good OL coach. His philosophy on drafting OL is the problem.

Has Foerster said what his draft philosophy is?

"This is my personal opinion," Foerster said Wednesday at 49ers OTAs. "If they ask me, invest in guys that touch the ball, guys that can touch the ball and score touchdowns. And then there's a range of guys, second, third, fourth round, fifth round even, that we will find starting offensive linemen in."

Originally posted by DRCHOWDER:

No days off for Colton McKivitz…

How confident are you in Colton this season? pic.twitter.com/8BrYeaJZWz

— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) June 29, 2025

when athletes film themselves working out and post it, it reminds me of Nino from kitchen nightmares when he had photos of himself cleaning the restaurant to prove he one time cleaned the restaurant

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by Scoots:

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Originally posted by TD49ers:
Got to hand it to Foester for polishing the turds.

Great rosy view of everyone getting better. Thats realistic.

Lots of depth behind the back ups.

Honestly based on what Forester has been given talent wise he's been a damn good OL coach. His philosophy on drafting OL is the problem.

Has Foerster said what his draft philosophy is?

"This is my personal opinion," Foerster said Wednesday at 49ers OTAs. "If they ask me, invest in guys that touch the ball, guys that can touch the ball and score touchdowns. And then there's a range of guys, second, third, fourth round, fifth round even, that we will find starting offensive linemen in."

Okay, so it's not so much specific to what he looks for in OL but rather that they are not as valuable as other positions.

You say it's "the problem" ... but had the 49ers paid to keep their best players on the line they wouldn't have Kittle/CMC or Warner/Bosa or whatever, and then the more "elite" line wouldn't matter as much to winning.

Based on what former 49er OL have been paid to leave it's working somewhat.

I think part of the issue is that it takes a few years to get some players ready to play and by that point you run out of roster space or contract space.

That player development thing is also why we see the team let talent go and have what we think is no talent on the roster at some positions, but the team knows what they have developed, and they are betting hard on their position coaches. Stars are difference makers and often worth investing in them, but a small step down from a star and they are just not worth paying what the market will bear. What kind of bugs me about this system is I'd like the team to get more value back by trading them away, but such trades are pretty rare now with the compensatory picks model. It's been clear Lynch/Shanny are openly using that system to get more mid-round picks by letting free agents go while not bringing in qualifying free agents to replace them and maximizing their comp picks.

"Jake's a hell of a player."

Derp.

Kyle probably loses in fantasy football with his oline every year and his punishment is to keep playing them.