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The 49ers Place Starting Offensive Lineman on Non-Football Injury List

This is a bummer.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Ben Bartch (78) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Ben Bartch (78) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

This is a bummer.

After losing starting offensive linemen Aaron Banks and Jaylon Moore, the 49ers are counting on certain backups to step up this year. Unfortunately for the 49ers, they just announced that they've placed projected starting left guard Ben Bartch on the Non-Football Injury List today.

Keep in mind, Bartch was healthy and on the field during minicamp in June, so he must have injured himself away from the 49ers facility some time between minicamp and now. The 49ers haven't said what exactly the injury is, because they don't have to.

These offseason injuries are not uncommon, considering players train extremely hard year-round. And we don't know the severity of the injury. For all we know, the 49ers will activate Bartch to the 90-man active roster tomorrow -- they can activate him at any time.

All we know is that Bartch is injured right now, and that he has been injured quite a bit in the past. Last year, he started two games for the 49ers at left guard. In the second game, he injured his ankle and missed the rest of the season. Now, the 49ers are counting on him to stay healthy for 17 games and the playoffs if they make it that far. Good luck.

While Bartch is out, the 49ers' left guards will be Spencer Burford and Nick Zakelj, which means the 49ers don't have a starting-caliber left guard. Perhaps they'll go sign one, considering Brandon Scherff is still available.

Unfortunately for the 49ers, they have to extend Jauan Jennings before they sign an offensive lineman.

Hopefully for their sake, Bartch's injury is nothing serious.

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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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