49ers OL Coach says OT Colton McKivitz has "Some Work to do"
By far the greatest weakness on the 49ers' offense is right tackle Colton McKivitz.
There hasn't been anything impressive from him and he so far is a downgrade from Mike McGlinchey. Fortunately for the 49ers, he hasn't proven to be a great liability through four games. Still, 49ers offensive line coach Chris Foerster believes McKivitz has "some work to do" to solidify the right side.
"As we go through the season four games in now, we keep progressing," said Foerster. "I think it gets better and better. So, I'm not down on Colton in any stretch of the imagination, pass protection, run game wise. He's just got some work to do.”
There are times in every game this season where McKivitz has completely whiffed in run blocking. That is something that McGlinchey thrived at. He's going to need to sure that up, which is what I think Foerster wants the most despite not leaning one way or the other. Despite some shortcomings from McKivitz, the 49ers' offense is still clicking on all cylinders. Like I said, he hasn't proven to be a liability. The closest to it was Week 1 against the Steelers when T.J. Watt was wrecking him.
“The Pittsburgh game was an outlier," said Foerster. "We left him alone and he fought the best fight he could and he lost some battles. And obviously the guy had a good day and he got beat once on Sunday. And the rest of the day he had a really good day against the same players. And so whatever, I don't know the evaluation process and how it goes, he's not graded any better or any worse run or pass."
I'll say this about McKivitz. He is no better than average with some low moments. But most importantly is that he isn't drawing penalties and is holding his own in the pass game. Just imagine if he can start to polish his game and tighten up loose ends as the season progresses. Then the 49ers will really have themselves an amazing offensive line. Credit to Foerster for setting a high standard with McKivitz going into the season. It gives him something to strive for with the hope he can be fine when the 49ers face valiant pass rushers.
"The good thing is, I had a very high expectation," Foerster said. "I was really hard on him in training camp. I feel we should have hit this ground running this year, but you have to play in the games, you have to get back in the game condition. You have to get a feel for how things are going this year, the defenses, how they're defending us differently based on what we did a year ago. And it's just a process."
