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Should the 49ers Extend Colton McKivitz's Contract?

The 49ers awarded three key players with massive contract extensions this offseason, and Colton McKivitz wasn't one of them.
Grant Cohn|
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Colton McKivitz (68) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Jan 5, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Colton McKivitz (68) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers awarded three key players with massive contract extensions this offseason, and Colton McKivitz wasn't one of them.

Instead, the 49ers extended Brock Purdy, George Kittle and Fred Warner, which is understandable. But McKivitz plays offensive tackle, which might be the thinnest position on the 49ers. And if the 49ers plan to let him leave in free agency next offseason, they currently don't have a replacement on the roster.

That's why ESPN believes the 49ers should extend McKivitz now.

"The problem here is less right tackle McKivitz and more the fact that left tackle Trent Williams turns 37 in July," writes ESPN'S Aaron Schatz. "He could decide to retire at any time.

"McKivitz's contract ends after the 2025 season, and the 49ers don't want to be stuck having to replace both tackles at the same time. So the wise thing to do is to give McKivitz a small extension, maybe a couple of more seasons. He's not a great tackle -- he ranked 52nd out of 66 qualifying tackles with an 85.9% pass block win rate in 2024 -- but he has improved in recent seasons. An extension would also give the 49ers some offensive line stability."

Schatz's argument for extending McKivitz makes sense until he acknowledges that McKivitz is one of the worst starting offensive tackles in the league. And although he technically improved from 2023 to 2024, that just means he went from being the worst right tackle in the league to one of the worst right tackles in the league.

So no, the 49ers should not extend McKivitz. The only thing that makes him appealing is how cheap he currently is. They should replace him with someone cheaper and better.

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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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