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What Ben Bartch's injury means for the 49ers' offensive line

Ben Bartch is supposed to replace Aaron Banks as the 49ers' starting left guard, and on Friday, he was placed on the Non-Football Injury List.
Grant Cohn|
Jun 10, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive linemen Trent Williams (71), Nick Zakelj (63) and Ben Bartch (78) participate in a drill during an OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jun 10, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive linemen Trent Williams (71), Nick Zakelj (63) and Ben Bartch (78) participate in a drill during an OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

On Friday, the 49ers placed six players on the Physically Unable to Perform List, and those players included Brandon Aiyuk, Ricky Pearsall, Malik Mustapha and Yetur Gross-Matos.

But we know Aiyuk and Mustapha would miss most or all of training camp. And for all we know, the 49ers could activate Pearsall and Gross-Matos on Wednesday for the first practice of training camp. So, there's no reason to panic about those two just yet.

Ben Bartch is another story. He's supposed to replace Aaron Banks as the 49ers' starting left guard, and on Friday, he was placed on the Non-Football Injury List. Which means he injured himself away from the facility some time between the end of minicamp in June and now. The 49ers haven't said what the injury is or the severity of it, but they should provide some clarity on Tuesday when Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch speak to the media.

If Bartch has to miss part of training camp, it's unclear who will replace him as the starting left guard. Spencer Burford is one clear candidate, but he will have to play left tackle in practice until Andre Dillard is activated off the PUP List, because Trent Williams doesn't participate in 11-on-11 team drills.

Another candidate is rookie pick Connor Colby. Sure, he was a seventh-round pick, but so were Brock Purdy and Jauan Jennings. Plus, Colby went to Iowa, the same program that produced George Kittle. So he fits the scheme at least. And now, he has an opportunity to take a starting job, which is what Dominick Puni did last year in training camp when he was a rookie and Burford and Jon Feliciano went down.

If Kolby shows promise, the 49ers probably will give him the job, because he's under contract for three more years after this one and he's cheap.

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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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