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Jake Brendel has Knee Tendonitis and Will Miss 49ers OTAs

While Brendel is out rehabbing, the 49ers starting center in OTAs is veteran Jon Feliciano.

Grant Cohn

Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers center Jake Brendel (64) runs off the field against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 3, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco 49ers center Jake Brendel (64) runs off the field against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
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Jake Brendel was a no-show at practice on Tuesday. Afterward, head coach Kyle Shanahan revealed that Brendel has knee tendonitis and will miss all of OTAs. "He could tough through it but we're going to be smart with him on it," Shanahan said.

Brendel has been the 49ers' starting center each of the past two seasons and hasn't missed a game in that time. But he'll be 32 on Sept. 10. He's at the age when his body could begin to break down. Which means the 49ers could need another center as soon as this year.

While Brendel is out rehabbing, the 49ers starting center in OTAs is veteran Jon Feliciano. He started seven games at right guard for the 49ers last season and performed reasonably well. He also started 15 games at center for the New York Giants in 2022. So he could replace Brendel if his knee tendonitis lingers.

Brendel was a Pro Bowl alternate in 2022, but his Pro Football Focus grades haven't been good the past two seasons. It's entirely possible that the 49ers would be better off playing Feliciano over Brendel at center. And then at right guard, the 49ers could play Spencer Burford or rookie Dominick Puni, or both of them in a rotation.

The center is a critical position in the 49ers' offense because he's responsible for setting the protection schemes at the line of scrimmage before the snap. And in the Super Bowl, the 49ers gave up nine unblocked rushers, which means Brendel didn't do so well. It will be interesting to see what the 49ers plan to do with 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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