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The 49ers Should Sign Connor Williams

The 49ers have an intriguing opportunity.

Grant Cohn

Miami Dolphins guard Connor Williams (58) takes the field before the opening game of the season against the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Sept. 11, 2022. Dolphins V Patriots Nfl Game 12
Miami Dolphins guard Connor Williams (58) takes the field before the opening game of the season against the New England Patriots at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Sept. 11, 2022. Dolphins V Patriots Nfl Game 12 / JIM RASSOL/THE PALM BEACH POST / USA
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The 49ers have an intriguing opportunity.

They can add a quality starting center to their offensive line right now. That's because veteran center Connor Williams remains a free agent after tearing his ACL late last season. Williams expects to be healthy by Week 1, and if he is, he instantly would be a tremendous upgrade over the 49ers' current starting center, Jake Brendel, who missed all of OTAs and minicamp with knee tendinitis.

Williams, 27, was a second-round pick in 2018. He played the first four seasons of his career in Dallas where he started 51 games at left guard. Then in 2022, he signed a two-year contract with Miami, where he started 26 games at center before tearing his ACL.

When healthy, Williams is one of the top centers in the NFL. As opposed to Brendel, who's 31 and average at best. Pro Football Focus recently ranked Brendel the 21st-best center in the NFL.

"Brendel’s pass-blocking grade suffered greatly in 2023, but the former Dolphin recorded a career-high 70.5 run-blocking grade, which ranked 15th among centers," writes PFF analyst Thomas Valentine. "There’s hope and expectation that Brendel, who recorded a 71.9 pass-blocking grade in his rookie season, can improve his all-around game next season."

Brendel's knee tendinitis might dampen that hope that he'll have a good season. It seems more likely that his body is beginning to break down and that he's entering the downside of his career. If that's the case, the 49ers need to find another starting center pronto, and Williams would be a significant upgrade.

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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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