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The 49ers Have the 9th-Best Offensive Line in the NFL per PFF

Give the offensive line some credit.

Grant Cohn

Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) reacts after a foul negates a touchdown against the New England Patriots during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) reacts after a foul negates a touchdown against the New England Patriots during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images / Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
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It's hard to say why the 49ers are just 5-5 right now.

Despite all the injuries they've had this season, their roster is still one of the best in the NFL. They don't have any glaring weaknesses on offense or defense. In the past, their biggest was their offensive line. But this season, thanks in part to the addition of rookie right guard Dominick Puni, the 49ers have one of the better offensive lines in the league according to Pro Football Focus.

"Although the 49ers lost to the Seahawks, San Francisco’s offensive line played one of the best games of its season, especially in pass blocking," writes PFF analyst Zoltan Buday. "The unit did not allow a single sack or quarterback hit and surrendered just six hurries on 36 pass plays, leading to a 91.7 PFF pass-blocking efficiency rating that tied for fifth best this week. Guard Dominick Puni has earned an 80.8 PFF overall grade this season. The highest grade recorded by a rookie over the past five seasons was 73.6 in 2021 (Kansas City’s Trey Smith)."

The offensive line drew the ire of many 49ers fans and analysts this weekend because it missed some blocks in the run game and Christian McCaffrey averaged just 4.2 yards per carry. But McCaffrey's struggles have more to do with his rust and lack of burst after missing training camp and the first half of the season with bilateral Achilles tendonitis. If the offensive line were an issue, Jordan Mason and Isaac Guerendo would have struggled this year as well, but they didn't.

Give the offensive line some credit.

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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.

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