Why Offensive Line Should Be the 49ers' Top Priority

Asking a quarterback to mask a weak offensive line is a losing strategy.

Grant Cohn | Feb 16, 2021

It amazes me how many people think the solution to a bad offensive line is a new quarterback.

The 49ers offensive line gave up 83 quarterback hits in 2020 -- more than any other offensive line in the NFL. Plus it got TWO quarterback injured, not just one.

So naturally, some fans and experts say the 49ers simply need a new quarterback, a mobile one who can scramble around and make bad blockers seem good.

As if the new guy won't get injured behind the 49ers' atrocious pass protection.

Asking a quarterback to mask a weak offensive line is a losing strategy. It never works for the Seahawks. They haven't returned to the Super Bowl since they gave Russell Wilson a mondo extension and gutted their offensive line to afford it.

And that strategy didn't work for the Chiefs in the Super Bowl, even though they were the favorites and most people picked them to win simply because they had Patrick Mahomes, the most talented quarterback in the world. Surely a bad offensive line wouldn't hold him back, right?

Wrong. Mahomes scrambled for nearly 500 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and the Chiefs still lost to a team with a 43-year-old quarterback who can't move, because that team had the better offensive line and supporting cast.

Which brings me to the 49ers. Lots of people think they should trade all their assets for Deshaun Watson, as if he can win a Super Bowl with no pass protection even though Mahomes can't.

Give me a break.

Watson went 4-12 last season. He's not superman. He needs a supporting cast, needs an offensive line, just as every quarterback does.

The 49ers currently have one good offensive lineman -- Trent Williams. And he's a free agent. He might not return. And the rest of the starters are sub par.

Right tackle Mike McGlinchey blew 32 blocks in 2020 -- fourth most in the NFL according to Sports Info Solutions. And left guard Laken Tomlinson blew 26 blocks -- fifth most among guards.

The 49ers must replace those two AND re-sign Williams before they can put a quarterback in a position to succeed.

Big people allow little people to play football. The 49ers should know this by now.

Published Feb 16, 2021

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.