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Is Offensive Line Really the 49ers' Biggest Need?

The 49ers probably will draft an offensive tackle in Rounds 2 or 3 and develop him for a year before making him a starter. But there is another position which the 49ers could use a starter right now.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch looks on prior
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch looks on prior | Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers absolutely need to improve their offensive line.

But any offensive lineman they draft likely won't start right away, because Kyle Shanahan hates playing rookies on offense if he doesn't have to. Plus they just extended starting right tackle Colton McKivitz's contract through 2025, so they don't have an immediate vacancy at the position.

The 49ers probably will draft an offensive tackle in Rounds 2 or 3 and develop him for a year before making him a starter. But there is another position which the 49ers could use a starter right now, and that's cornerback.

As it stands, the 49ers' top four cornerbacks all will be unrestricted free agents in 2025. We're talking Charvarius Ward, Deommodore Lenoir, Ambry Thomas and Isaac Yiadom. And that means the 49ers will need to take multiple cornerbacks in the upcoming draft to replace the cornerbacks who won't come back.

In addition, the 49ers still don't have an entrenched No. 3 cornerback. They have Ambry Thomas, Isaac Yiadom, Samuel Womack and Darrell Luter Jr. -- four guys who will compete for the job. It's unclear if any of them will actually excel for the 49ers.

If the 49ers draft a cornerback in Round 1, he could be the no. 3 corner in the nickel defense as a rookie, and then he could become a starter in 2025 after a free agent or two leaves. Also, if the 49ers draft a linebacker, he could start and play 100 percent of the defensive snaps until Dre Greenlaw returns from an Achilles tear.

Don't be surprised if the 49ers draft a position other than offensive line in Round 1.

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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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