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Chiefs and Vikings are Expected to Pursue 49ers Guard Aaron Banks

Expect the 49ers to draft Banks' replacement in Round 2 or 3 in the upcoming class -- someone much quicker and agile than him.
Grant Cohn|
January 20, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers guard Aaron Banks (65) before a 2024 NFC divisional round game against the Green Bay Packers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
January 20, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers guard Aaron Banks (65) before a 2024 NFC divisional round game against the Green Bay Packers at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers almost certainly will lose their starting left guard this week.

Aaron Banks is set to hit free agency and get paid between $18 million and $20 million per season. Which means the 49ers can't afford him, but the Chiefs and Vikings can according to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer.

"Banks should benefit from the tagging of Chiefs G Trey Smith, and may be this year’s version of Robert Hunt, a solid interior lineman who cashes in big on the open market," writes Breer.

"Kansas City will likely take a look at him, with (Ronnie) Stanley off the market, and the Minnesota Vikings could use help inside as well."

Banks should go to a team that doesn't feature outside-zone blocking as prevalently as the 49ers do because he's not quick and agile enough to make those blocks. And the Vikings run a lot of outside zone.

Banks would be a much better fit on a team that features inside-zone blocking and RPOs, a team like the Eagles or the Chiefs. The 49ers drafted Banks the same year they drafted Trey Lance. Back then, the 49ers thought they would be evolving into a zone-read, RPO team, but that evolution never happened. So Banks has been an awkward fit.

He'd be an outstanding fit for the Chiefs who just traded left guard Joe Thuney to the Bears. Banks could be a somewhat cheaper replacement.

Expect the 49ers to draft Banks' replacement in Round 2 or 3 in the upcoming class -- someone much quicker and agile than him.

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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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