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The Thinnest Position Group on the 49ers

At this stage of the offseason, it's hard to pinpoint the thinnest position group on the 49ers because so many of them lack depth.
Jun 11, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive linemen work on blocking skills during a team OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jun 11, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive linemen work on blocking skills during a team OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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At this stage of the offseason, it's hard to pinpoint the thinnest position group on the 49ers because so many of them lack depth.

That's because the 49ers currently are sitting on more than $46 million in salary cap space. They say they want to get younger and cheaper, and that involves starting lots of rookies and second-year players.

As of now, the starting safeties for Week 1 are projected to be Jason Pinnock and Ji'Ayir Brown. That's a thin position.

In addition, the starting defensive linemen are projected to be Nick Bosa and three rookies. That's another thin position.

But the thinnest position group on the team has to be the offensive line. Because while most position groups on the team lost key players this offseason, the offensive line is the one group that didn't see a serious influx of young talent.

Instead, the 49ers lost starting left guard Aaron Banks and swing tackle Jaylon Moore during free agency. Which means the 49ers essentially have the same offensive line as last season, minus two key players. So depth is a bigger issue this year than last year.

When Trent Williams is healthy, the 49ers offensive line isn't bad. But when he's out, the 49ers offensive line from left to right is Spencer Burford, Ben Bartch, Jake Brendel, Dominick Puni and Colton McKivitz. The only quality starter in the bunch is Puni. And Williams misses at least two games every season. And they're 4-12 since 2020 when he doesn't play.

The 49ers need to improve this group before someone gets injured.

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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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