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Will the 49ers Finally Replace Center Jake Brendel this Offseason?

If the 49ers truly want to get younger and cheaper, maybe they could start by replacing their 32-year-old center.

Grant Cohn

Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers center Jake Brendel (64) blocks New York Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley (57) during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers center Jake Brendel (64) blocks New York Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley (57) during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
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If the 49ers truly want to get younger and cheaper, maybe they could start by replacing their 32-year-old center.

Jake Brendel will turn 33 in September and he isn't getting younger or better. Last season, he ranked 23rd among NFL centers in Pro Football Focus grades. And in pass protection, he ranked 51st out of qualifying 64 centers. Yikes.

As a run blocker, Brendel does a good job in the 49ers' outside-zone blocking scheme because he's agile enough to block linebackers in space at the second level of the defense. This is why the 49ers like him.

But in pass protection, he's worse than lots of backups. He weighs less than 300 lbs., so he cannot block NFL defensive linemen one on one. He almost always needs help.

He's also responsible for setting the 49ers' protection schemes before the snap, and their offense is notoriously bad at picking up blitzes on third downs. So Brendel's value comes almost exclusively in the run game.

The 49ers are on the verge of making Brock Purdy one of the highest-paid players in the NFL this offseason. They won't be paying him to hand off all the time. They're going to want him to pass, which means they're going to need a center who can hold his own in pass protection. And that's not Brendel.

Don't be surprised if the 49ers make Brendel compete with Matt Hennessy, Nick Zakelj, Drake Nugent and a rookie for the job during training camp.

May the best man win.

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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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