What's behind 49ers' stingy offensive line philosophy? Chris Foerster explains (2024)

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — A prominent member of the San Francisco 49ers doesn’t see the need to invest premium draft picks in offensive linemen. That person? He happens to be the team’s offensive line coach.

“This is my personal opinion — invest in guys that touch the ball, guys that can touch the ball and score touchdowns,” Chris Foerster said last week. “And then there’s a range of guys — second, third, fourth round, fifth round, even — that we will find starting offensive linemen in.”

Fans who have been waiting for the team to draft a tackle early on in recent years probably suspected this was the team’s philosophy.

Two years ago, everyone thought the 49ers would take a tackle with one of their three third-round picks. Instead, they went with a safety, kicker and tight end and didn’t draft any offensive linemen that year.

Heading into the most recent draft, offensive tackle was a popular guess as far as what the team would do at pick No. 31. Arizona offensive tackle Jordan Morgan was most frequently mocked to the 49ers, followed by Duke offensive lineman Graham Barton and Oklahoma tackle Tyler Guyton.

Nope. The 49ers didn’t spend much time with any of those players in the run-up to the draft, and all three were gone before the 49ers were on the clock. They ended up choosing, in Foerster’s words, a guy who touches the ball, receiver Ricky Pearsall.

That’s not to say they ignored the offensive line. They would have considered Washington tackle Roger Rosengarten at pick No. 63 in the second round, but the Baltimore Ravens took him one spot earlier. In the third round, they took a college tackle, Kansas’ Dominick Puni. But they plan to play him at guard, and he’ll be one of the players competing for the starting right guard spot when training camp begins next month. The 49ers chose another offensive lineman, USC’s Jarrett Kingston, in the sixth round. He’s also mostly been lining up at guard this spring.

“Yeah, we looked at numerous guys throughout the process,” general manager John Lynch said after the draft. “I think when you’re drafting 31st, it’s oftentimes hard to find a tackle that you really love.”

The philosophy seems to be an echo of the Mike Shanahan-coached Denver Broncos teams of the 1990s. The Broncos’ 1997 season Super Bowl champions, for example, had future Pro Football Hall of Famers at quarterback and running back in John Elway and Terrell Davis, and had a pair of terrific receivers in Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey. The offensive line that started the big game that season? It included two former 10th-round picks, one seventh-rounder and a tackle, Tony Jones, who’d entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent.

“Could you put five first-rounders across the front? I don’t know that we have to, to have success,” said Foerster, who coached under Mike Shanahan in Washington from 2010 to ’13. “The fact that you can throw a short pass to Deebo (Samuel), even though the right tackle’s getting beat, it ends up being a 60-yard touchdown.”

That mindset might have been reinforced by what’s happened at right tackle in recent years.

The 49ers have used a first-round pick on an offensive lineman just once in the Kyle Shanahan era — on Mike McGlinchey, whom they took at No. 9 in 2018. They allowed McGlinchey to depart via free agency last offseason and replaced him with a fifth-round pick from 2020, Colton McKivitz.

McKivitz might not be quite as good as his predecessor, especially in run blocking. But the disparity is not as great as their respective draft positions would suggest. McGlinchey gave up 49 quarterback pressures and six sacks for the Broncos this past season, according to Pro Football Focus. McKivitz allowed 46 and nine for the 49ers during the regular season.

Foerster cited right guard to make a similar point.

“The right guard makes a difference — we’ve talked about it before — but that’s where we’re able to find fourth- and fifth-round draft picks,” he said. “How dominant is the difference between pick 34 versus pick 54 in offensive line play? That’s what you’re trying to balance all the time.”

Indeed, the interior of the 49ers’ offensive line is full of middle or late-round picks. Jon Feliciano, Ben Bartch and Spencer Burford all entered the league as fourth-round selections. The 49ers drafted Nick Zakelj in the sixth round. Center Jake Brendel went undrafted in 2016 and spent time with four other clubs before landing with the 49ers.

The only high-round pick of the group is left guard Aaron Banks, a 2021 second-rounder who’s scheduled for free agency in March. Given that they let McGlinchey and guard Laken Tomlinson walk in free agency previously, it’s hard to see the 49ers giving Banks a big contract to stick around, and the plan may be to replace him with Puni in 2025.

Of course, the 49ers haven’t scrimped everywhere along the offensive line. They traded two draft picks to Washington to acquire Trent Williams in 2020, then signed him to a six-year, $138 million extension the following year, which was then the league’s biggest contract for an offensive lineman.

The old Broncos units had a similar outlier. While four of the 1997 Super Bowl starters had humble origins, their left tackle was Gary Zimmerman, who’d been a second-round pick in the USFL (he was a Los Angeles Express teammate of Steve Young’s) before being taken in the first round of an NFL supplemental draft. Zimmerman was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008.

Williams also seems destined for the Hall of Fame. How much longer he’ll keep playing, however, is less certain. He said last season that he wanted to earn a 12th Pro Bowl nod, which would be the most ever for an offensive tackle. And if he accomplishes that in 2024, then what? He’ll be 36 at the end of the season.

With no Trent Williams this spring, the 49ers’ left tackles have been Jaylon Moore (76) and Brandon Parker (75). pic.twitter.com/9OWi77YDcI

— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) June 5, 2024

Which brings us back to why so many draftniks thought the 49ers would take a tackle early on in April — to find an heir apparent should Williams hang up his cleats. As it stands now, his top backups are Jaylon Moore and Brandon Parker, neither of whom is signed for next season.

As Foerster noted, the 49ers don’t need five elite blockers. But they also run the risk of being too frugal at the position.

“There’s a line below which, with offensive line play, that if you just drop a little bit below it, it’s a gaping hole,” he said. “All of a sudden, you’re like, ‘He can’t block anybody.’ And now we’ve got a major problem. But as long as they’re at that line and just above it, you can survive it.”

(Top photo of Dominick Puni and Ben Bartch: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)

Matt Barrows is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the 49ers. He joined The Athletic in 2018 and has covered the 49ers since 2003. He was a reporter with The Sacramento Bee for 19 years, four of them as a Metro reporter. Before that he spent two years in South Carolina with The Hilton Head Island Packet. Follow Matt on Twitter @MattBarrows