All 49ers

The 49ers Offensive Line Ranked 13th in the NFL this Season per PFF

It's interesting that the 49ers offensive line ranks higher than the Vikings offensive line, which largely was credited for Sam Darnold's excellent season.
Grant Cohn|
Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) reacts after a foul negates a touchdown against the New England Patriots during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) reacts after a foul negates a touchdown against the New England Patriots during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images | Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images

In this story:

San Francisco 49ers

The most overly-criticized position group on the 49ers is their offensive line.

It isn't great by any means, but it also isn't bad. In fact, it's above average according to Pro Football Focus which ranks the 49ers offensive line 13th among 32 NFL teams.

"At some point, the 49ers' offensive line looked better than in recent seasons," writes PFF analyst Zoltan Buday. "However, losing its best player in left tackle Trent Williams set the unit back, and it struggled in the last month of the regular season. The 49ers might have found a future star in rookie right guard Dominick Puni, whom they selected in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Puni played the most snaps on the offensive line (1,078), started all 17 games and earned an 80.5 PFF overall grade, which ranked seventh among all guards.

Best player: Trent Williams

"While Williams’ 85.6 PFF overall grade was his lowest since 2018, it was still the sixth-highest grade among offensive tackles this season."

It's interesting that the 49ers offensive line ranks higher than the Vikings offensive line, which largely was credited for Sam Darnold's excellent season. Perhaps Brock Purdy created a lot of the pressure he faced this season by misreading defenses and holding the ball too long.

The 49ers do need to draft an offensive tackle to replace Trent Williams sooner or later. Perhaps sooner if this season is any indication. He missed seven games with an ankle injury that never healed.

Download and follow The Cohn Zohn Podcast.

Published
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.

Share on XFollow grantcohn
Home/News