Pro Football Focus Analyzes the 49ers' Biggest Weakness

You could make the case that their biggest weakness under head coach Kyle Shanahan has been game management considering the way they've given up double-digit leads in two Super Bowls.

Grant Cohn | Jun 11, 2024

Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones (95) pursues San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers don't have many weaknesses considering they have arguably the most talented roster tin the NFL.

You could make the case that their biggest weakness under head coach Kyle Shanahan has been game management considering the way they've given up double-digit leads in two Super Bowls.

But if you had to single out one aspect of their roster that's the worst, you'd have to go with their offensive line, specifically their pass protection. Pro Football Focus recently eplained why:

"The 49ers struggled to pass protect last season, culminating with Brock Purdy being pressured on nearly half of his dropbacks in the team’s Super Bowl loss. Their 57.2 team pass-blocking grade ranked 24th in the NFL and was the only facet where they ranked outside the top 12. They need to improve their pass protection in true dropback situations in order to get themselves over the hump and win a championship."

Bingo. They'll never win a championship until they invest more heavily in their offensive line. Because right now, they have one great player at left tackle next to four of the cheapest starters they can find. And that's not a formula for a Lombardi Trophy.

George Kittle frequently has to stay in the backfield and help right tackle Colton McKivitz because he can't block anyone decent by himself. And the 49ers have been looking for a starting right guard for a decade. And their center, Jake Brendel, couldn't set the protections correctly in the Super Bowl and allowed the Chiefs to generate nine unblocked pass rushers.

To address this weakness, the 49ers drafted Dominick Puni in Round 3 and Jarrett Kingston in Round 6.

Not enough.

Published Jun 11, 2024

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.