Mike McDaniel Reveals the 49ers Ideal Offensive Lineman
Mike McDaniel held his first press conference on Wednesday since being promoted to offensive coordinator.
His presser was a little quirky, and maybe that was because he was nervous. Either way, McDaniel had some interesting comments in his presser.
One of them was at the end where he reveals the 49ers ideal offensive lineman, which appears to be Aaron Banks. The 49ers offensive line is mostly built from smaller players outside of Trent Williams, and even Joe Staley before he retired. It was presumed that the 49ers liked the smaller lineman since the zone-scheme they run needs their players to be able to have strong agility. McDaniel quelled that narrative.
“Yeah. We’ve heard that and for us it's funny because we have a history of smaller offensive lineman," Said McDaniel. "But that's really because we haven't invested second round draft picks into offensive linemen. We'd prefer everyone to be 400 pounds and 6’10 if you could engineer that. We do a lot of gap schemes and man schemes in our offense. But to say that we're changing the things, no. We felt like he had a skill set that could thrive and have lot of faith in [offensive line coach Chris] Foerster and [assistant offensive line coach] Butch Barry and [assistant offensive line coach] Zach Yenser to get him to perform to our standards. We weren't looking through a vision of changing anything. We thought that this is a guy that was quick enough that on the second level could attach to the defenders. He had a lot of skills. And yeah, we like that he’s big. He's just gonna have to run fast while being big and we felt like he was a candidate to do that.”
Could this also be perceived as a subtle shot at McGlinchey? At least, an unintended one of course. McGlinchey definitely needed to pack on some pounds to withstand his own after last season where he appeared extremely slim. Perhaps, he just wanted to lose weight to be faster as a run blocker. Being able to move fast laterally is always going to be important in the scouting process of linemen for the 49ers.
But it does not necessarily equate to slimmer or shorter stature player. They need their linemen to be beefy to maintain their own, while also being able to get to their gaps to clear running lanes quickly. So when Banks was drafted, it was like the 49ers were reinventing themselves when the reality is they have always had this identity to be a ground attacking offense. That will always be a staple in Kyle Shanahan's offense.
The right side of the offensive line will surely be boosted with Banks.
