All 49ers

Projecting the 49ers' Starting Offensive Line for 2024

What an underwhelming group of players.

Grant Cohn

Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers center Jake Brendel (64) against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers center Jake Brendel (64) against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

The weakest position group on the 49ers by far is their offensive line.

It's the only position on the team that isn't good. It's subpar. And the 49ers don't seem to care. They think it's good enough for them. And it is good enough, until they reach the Super Bowl. Then it collapses every time.

So who will be on their offensive line this year?

Trent Williams will be the left tackle, clearly.

Aaron Banks will be the left guard -- he's in the final year of his contract.

Jake Brendel probably will be the starting center considering he's the second-highest-paid offensive lineman on the team. But Brendel will be 32 this season and he missed OTAs and minicamp with knee tendonitis, so it's no guarantee that he'll make it through the entire season.

If Brendel misses time, look for Ben Bartch to fill in at center. He was the starter at that position in minicamp. He also has started games at guard and tackle for the Jaguars, so he's a key reserve.

At right guard, the 49ers probably will stick with veteran Jon Feliciano who played well until he got injured in the Super Bowl. He also is on the older side, so if he begins to break down, the next man up likely will be third-year guard Spencer Burford or rookie Dominick Puni.

At right tackle, the 49ers will start Colton McKivitz simply because he's cheap and they have no other options. His backup probably will be Jaylen Moore, who's not good.

What an underwhelming group of players.

Published
Grant Cohn

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

Home/News