49ers will be hoping they don't have to see the results of understated offseason improvement
The San Francisco 49ers possess the premier offensive tackle in football in the form of Trent Williams, but there's no denying they would be in trouble up front if they ever lost the first-team All-Pro for any extended period of time. Williams is the elder statesman and undoubted jenga piece of an offensive line that […]
The San Francisco 49ers possess the premier offensive tackle in football in the form of Trent Williams, but there's no denying they would be in trouble up front if they ever lost the first-team All-Pro for any extended period of time.
Williams is the elder statesman and undoubted jenga piece of an offensive line that otherwise features journeymen and mid-round picks beyond the 11-time Pro Bowler.
The drop-off from Williams to a replacement level player at the left tackle spot is obviously massive, and it was one of the more bewildering aspects of the Niners' 2024 draft that they did not select a true tackle with one of their three picks in the top 100 to compete for a starting spot across from the future of Hall of Famer, or at least learn behind him as a potential successor.
San Francisco took Kansas' Dominick Puni in the third round and view him as a player who can operate at all five spots on O-Line, but the Niners primarily regard him as a guard.
One reason for the 49ers' decision not to draft a young tackle who could serve as insurance for Williams in year one is that the Niners appear to still have great confidence in their primary safety net on the left side of the line.
Jaylon Moore, the 49ers' fifth-round pick in 2022, played in two games in relief of the injured Williams in Week 7 and Week 8 last season.
The 49ers lost both games, illustrating Williams' immense value to the team, but it would be wrong to place the blame squarely on Moore, who did not give up a sack in either game and surrendered just three pressures across those two weeks, per Pro Football Focus.
And Moore will this month go into his final training camp before he enters unrestricted free agency next offseason knowing he has the full confidence of offensive line coach Chris Foerster.
Said Foerster back in May:
"Jaylon Moore, he always progresses. If you guys know Jaylon or met Jaylon or talked to him at all, he is a very soft-spoken, very even keeled guy. But yet, every year he just comes back a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better. I’m really impressed with how he’s doing this year. He’s got to dig in. As I said, he’s got the most thankless job in the world, right? He spends the whole offseason, the whole preseason being our starting left tackle. It precludes him from competing at right guard or right tackle because somebody has to go play our left tackle spot and be there when [QB Brock] Purdy’s in the game or when we’re trying to get things going. So, he’s kind of locked into that perennial backup role. But then you never know, hopefully nothing happens. But if something does, he’s ready to go. And he’s really proven every year to embrace more. And I really love Jaylon. I love what he does. He’s not going to jump off the screen at you. He’s not going to jump off personality wise, but I love the guy, great guy. He has improved every year.”
Moore continually practicing on the left side may preclude him from playing on the right if needed, but the 49ers settled on a decent solution to address the backup right tackle spot, signing a player who could even threaten to take Colton McKivitz's starting spot in veteran Chris Hubbard.
Last season, Hubbard made nine starts for the Tennessee Titans before injury ended his campaign. Per Sports Info Solutions, he had a blown block rate of 3.4%. McKivitz, albeit on the sample size of a full season, had a blown block rate of 6.3%.
The 49ers will start the players they believe give them the best chance to win the Super Bowl this season but, given how much time they have invested in developing former fifth-round pick McKivitz, they would surely prefer him to prove he is worthy of staying as the starter despite a hugely unconvincing first season in that role.
In Hubbard, the 49ers have a solid alternative on the right edge of the offensive line and they clearly still believe in Moore as an insurance policy against a Williams injury. Foerster's words suggest Moore has made strides this offseason and Hubbard is an upgrade on Matt Pryor, the 49ers' right tackle backup last year.
It would therefore be fair to claim that, despite a lack of significant investment at the position, the 49ers' tackle situation has improved. Yet they will hope they never have to prove that point in the 2024 regular season.
San Francisco 49ers’ ability to excel at potential problem area will hinge on starters’ subtle quality
It’s a potential weakness if they can’t get it right.
