49ers Offensive Line

Originally posted by VinculumJuris:
You just sent up a signal flare for the "Purdy holds the ball too long," "CMC is cooked," and "PFF says our OL is top 10" crowds. Around and around we go.

One of those is not like the rest.

Purdy does hold the ball too long at times; CMC is slowing down as a runner; PFF is a joke. The 49ers OL is bad. Plain and simple. There's no reason that all three interior OL spots shouldn't be upgraded.

The goal should be find 5 OL that 1) work well together 2) aren't complete liabilities in 1-on-1 pass protection. They don't need 5 all-pros/pro bowlers(although that'd be sweet). Geoff Schwartz said he'd take 5 good OL that play well together over 1 elite OL with 4 below-average OL(lol describes the 49ers' OL to a tee). That's my belief as well.

Originally posted by Sask49erFan:
I assume you mean draft a tackle and move McKivitz to LG

But no. McKivitz was one of the better right tackles in the league last year. He's the last of our worries

McKivitz is whatever, he's a league average right tackle. Not the biggest issue. Puni was supposedly playing injured all year and since he had such a good rookie season, I think he deserves another shot at RG.

The biggest problem areas are LG and C. Brendel gets bullied way too often by better OLs. He lacks the necessary size and strength to hold up and its beyond time to find a replacement.

I also think a coaching change would be helpful. I cant think of any great OLs that Foerster has coached. He seems to be able to get average to below average performances from average to below average talent and refuses to demand anything better. That kind of hubris is reminiscent of Tom "just give me an athlete, I'll coach em up" Cable in Seattle and their OLs sucked.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
McKivitz is whatever, he's a league average right tackle. Not the biggest issue. Puni was supposedly playing injured all year and since he had such a good rookie season, I think he deserves another shot at LG.

The biggest problem areas are RG and C. Brendel gets bullied way too often by better OLs. He lacks the necessary size and strength to hold up and its beyond time to find a replacement.

another shot ? did he even get a shot before at lg ? afaik he never played a snap at lg for us

Originally posted by the_dynasty:
another shot ? did he even get a shot before at lg ? afaik he never played a snap at lg for us

I was being dyslexic or whatever. I fixed it.

Originally posted by Heroism:
One of those is not like the rest.

Purdy does hold the ball too long at times; CMC is slowing down as a runner; PFF is a joke. The 49ers OL is bad. Plain and simple. There's no reason that all three interior OL spots shouldn't be upgraded.

All of these could be true, and Id add another couple of things here, receivers not getting separation and also offense rarely going outside the numbers

we all agree about the oline, but that stat about Brock running for 400 yards...is not JUST indicative of the oline, oline even when good cannot go more than five seconds of blocking.

watching the game yesterday, rams hit a lot of explosives outside the numbers with Adams embarrassing Witherspoon a few times and Puka also making tough catches outside. not only do we not have the WRs to do this, the QB we have is not that great at it (objectively) and the offense is not catered to those shots at all. and its not like Puka has blazing speed, hes just a great all around WR who can get open and also make contested catches anywhere

The staring OL is rated higher then they should have been because they played some bottom team like the Titians, New York, First place with losing recorded Carolina. The starting OL is average and should have been rated 12 to 15. They're not bad and not great . The backup are awful and all of them should be CUT. The only one that should be on the team next year is Connor Colby because he was a 7th round draft pick and needs time to develop. I like Ben Bartch but he can not stay healthy and he is no Trent Williams, Cut Ben Bartch and move on. They need to develop players and cut the guys that are not working out, draft there replacement. CUT Nick Zakelj and move on he is not working out why is he still on the Practice Squad. Austen Pleasants is not good, draft someone that can develop . Use a 3 round pick for a back up OL. I'm not saying this can all happen in one draft. It will take time. I think they need to do a much better job of drafting from the OL, and building depth on the OL. I'm not apposed to drafting Connor Colby in the 7th. I'm upset that Connor Colby was the starting LG because none of the other backup where better then a 7th round Rookie. Matt Hennessy, Austen Pleasants, Drake Nugent, Nick Zakelj no one was better then Connor Colby at LG? Then why are they on the team. That is my point if they can not play over a 7th round rookie why are they on the team? Why are they on the Practice Squad with 4 year of experience and can not play over a 7th round rookie that was not playing very well. A rookie who may have been playing hurt.

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Originally posted by jcs:

Originally posted by Cisco0623:

Originally posted by Heroism:

Donte Whitner on the biggest reason the 49ers lost to the Seahawks last weekend:

"In the trenches the Seahawks are bigger, stronger, and meaner than the 49ers. Whenever you hear people talk about football, what do they say? The game is won in the trenches… Until the 49ers… pic.twitter.com/sqCd3Lm6IQ

— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) January 22, 2026

sadly, we all know it won't happen. They might upgrade one spot along the OL, but all 3 interior spots can and should be upgraded. What they're fielding out there isn't close to being good enough. They're going to get their asses kicked again next year.

I have a hunch they may finally address the o-line it because while Kyle is stubborn, he's not stupid. The first thing he and Lynch did was build the trenches. Now they've ignored and/or missed on it many times never mind injuries.... I mean there is no way he reviews the film and thinks the line is ok, especially against a division rival. Time for some big mean nasties in the middle.

I don't think they do. Part of the excuse of giving Purdy 265 million is because he's mobile enough in the pocket to not need JimmyG type protection. The investment is going to probably be on Defense again, they've already told us their philosophy, that Offense can be coached up but D needs talent. We currently have serious question marks on the back end of our D and with a bunch of our talent on that side attempting to return from season ending injuries we don't know how they'll look.

Maybe. Aside qb every other position is upgradable/draftable imo. I'm of the school you build strong trenches and a defense up the middle. A solid free safety would help a lot.

None of that matters if your o-line simply can't handle top defensive lines. If they don't change anything why should they expect different results etc.

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Per Sports Info Solutions' DataHub, they have a blown-block rate metric that tracks the amount of missed blocks in the pass/run game. #49ers' C Jake Brendel ranked as the 6th-best center in the NFL, with a blown block rate of 1.8% this season.

Tied with....Tyler Linderbaum.

— Akash Anavarathan (@akashanav) January 27, 2026

Kyle's already called Brenda one of the best in league. I don't see Center as a position we push to upgrade this offseason

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Per Sports Info Solutions' DataHub, they have a blown-block rate metric that tracks the amount of missed blocks in the pass/run game. #49ers' C Jake Brendel ranked as the 6th-best center in the NFL, with a blown block rate of 1.8% this season.

Tied with....Tyler Linderbaum.

— Akash Anavarathan (@akashanav) January 27, 2026

Screw that he sucks!!!! Brendel that is. Watch the Seahawks vs 9ers highlights. Grey Zabel was pointing out what Brendel was doing and told Leonard Williams. Next thing you know Williams sacks Purdy. Brendel needs to go.

Originally posted by NYniner85:

Per Sports Info Solutions' DataHub, they have a blown-block rate metric that tracks the amount of missed blocks in the pass/run game. #49ers' C Jake Brendel ranked as the 6th-best center in the NFL, with a blown block rate of 1.8% this season.

Tied with....Tyler Linderbaum.

— Akash Anavarathan (@akashanav) January 27, 2026

That's a Dumb metric. It's not just blown blocks better to try what pct you can move your man off the line scrimmage and Brenden would be near the bottom. He might know who to block and doesn't miss but when he engages he gets very little movement which forces the back to have to break tackles to get positive yards. That's the reason CMC led the league this year in missed forced tackles because he was always getting hit at or near the line of scrimmage.

What are the odds we go into next season with the only o line changes being Colby replacing Burford and a late round OT?

Originally posted by jcs:
What are the odds we go into next season with the only o line changes being Colby replacing Burford and a late round OT?

I think we're all expecting some f**kery like this but then again they haven't completely ignored OL. They drafted McGlinchey in the 1st, traded for Trent, took Banks in the 2nd, and Puni in the 3rd.

Granted, that is the extent of their high capital OL acquisitions over an 8 year period… I'm hoping this is one of the rare occurrences, because we definitely need it at arguably 4 positions if you count Trent's replacement.

I know everyone one on here wants to replace/improve the center position, but I think that will do absolutely nothing if we don't get the LG fixed too. Even if we had the top center in the league, the play of the LG will just bring down the C play. The whole line needs to work together and a great center with weak guards will not do much imo. I point out the LG more because I'm hoping our RG maybe wakes up from the sophomore slump next year. Burford or Bartch isn't the answer at LG when we play great dlines.

Originally posted by DRCHOWDER:
I know everyone one on here wants to replace/improve the center position, but I think that will do absolutely nothing if we don't get the LG fixed too. Even if we had the top center in the league, the play of the LG will just bring down the C play. The whole line needs to work together and a great center with weak guards will not do much imo. I point out the LG more because I'm hoping our RG maybe wakes up from the sophomore slump next year. Burford or Bartch isn't the answer at LG when we play great dlines.

A top tier center helps weak guards more than they hurt him imo. Right now, we have a terrible lg and bad center. Puni was meh most of the year, but I think that injury got him. Perhaps the biggest tell is how bad the running lanes were. Sure maybe CMC is a half step slower this year, but we really were s**t run blocking. It was a bit surprising.

They need to draft bodies, large athletic kids they think they can coach up. (Gulp) We keep using leftovers and while he gets great results overall with them, they are outmatched in the playoffs.