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The 49ers Sign a Pair of Veteran Offensive Tackles

The 49ers have signed three veteran offensive tackles in a week.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 21, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Andre Dillard (77) against the New York Giants during an NFC divisional round game at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Jan 21, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Andre Dillard (77) against the New York Giants during an NFC divisional round game at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers have signed three veteran offensive tackles in a week.

First, they signed D.J. Humphries. Now, they've signed Andre Dillard and Nicholas Petit-Frere according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. That's an awful lot of offensive tackles for a team that already has two starters -- Trent Williams and Colton McKivitz.

Four veteran offensive tackles on one roster make sense, but five seems unusual.

Dillard was a first-round pick in 2019. He originally played for the Eagles but couldn't establish himself as a starter, so in 2023 he signed a three-year deal with the Tennessee Titans to be their starting left tackle. But he started only 10 games for them and they released him after one season. Last year, he played just 13 offensive snaps for the Packers. He'll be 30 in October.

Petit-Frere was a third-round pick in 2022, and he started 28 of the 34 games he appeared in with the Titans including 10 last season at right tackle.

It's unclear why the 49ers have signed so many offensive tackles recently. Maybe one of them will move to left tackle and replace Aaron Banks who signed with the Green Bay Packers this offseason. Or maybe the 49ers just need three levels of insurance in case Trent Williams gets injured again or retires. Your guess is as good as mine.

One thing's for sure, though. If Williams were to miss time, none of these three could replicate what he brings to the offense. They might be able to hold their own for a few weeks, but each would be a massive downgrade.

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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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