The 49ers only have themselves to blame for this giant roster hole

What were the 49ers thinking?

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The San Francisco 49ers will be riding with what could be considered plan D when it comes to their left guard position.

Kyle Shanahan announced that Ben Bartch will be going to the IR, effectively ending his season. The team will start Spencer Burford, who spent the summer as the backup left tackle, hardly getting any work at left guard. 

The San Francisco 49ers have had a revolving door at left guard

The 49ers have nobody to blame but themselves for the situation going down at left guard. Yes, injuries are unfortunate and played a role in what is going on, but the 49ers elected to enter the season dangerously thin at the position. 

They knew Aaron Banks was going to be leaving in free agency, as they did not offer him much of a contract. Instead of getting a legitimate replacement for the spot, the only player they added from outside the roster was a seventh-round rookie, Connor Colby. 

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They were not leaning on Colby, but rather Bartch, a player who had been with the team for two and a half years, but also has not played more than 293 snaps in a season since 2022. Bartch started in 2021, his second year in the NFL and was a starter in 2022 before a knee injury ended his season early.

From there, he had not put together anything close to a full season. He even got injured during his limited chance to play for the 49ers in 2024. So, while it is unfortunate for him to get injured, it never made sense to trust someone with ten starts in three seasons from the start. 

Of course, Colby was overwhelmed when he was thrown into the lineup far too early. Maybe the team would have turned to Burford over Nick Zakelj if Burford were healthy, but Zakelj had to replace Colby, and he has been unpoached on the practice squad since. Now, they are onto their fourth plan. The person they pushed out of the competition to work as a left tackle this summer.

Burford has been better than Colby and Zakelj in his five starts this season, but not as good as Bartch. If he does settle into the role, it will be hard to give the 49ers credit, as they seemed to have stumbled upon this revelation. 

Still, as of right now the team has one massive weakness on their offense, and it is hard to think that this is anything but a self-inflicted wound. It will be interesting to see what they do at left guard this offseason.