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What the 49ers Should Expect from Trent Williams in 2025

The answer could depend on the 49ers' record.
Grant Cohn|
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) before the game against the New York Jets at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Sep 9, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Trent Williams (71) before the game against the New York Jets at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Trent Williams still is an outstanding player.

He was the sixth-highest-graded left tackle in the NFL last season according to Pro Football Focus. But he missed the 49ers' final seven games with an ankle injury and he'll turn 37 in July. What should the 49ers expect to get from him next year?

Remember, the 49ers restructured Williams' contract last offseason to make him the highest-paid offensive lineman in the NFL, so expectations for him should be sky-high. He's supposed to be the best, not the sixth-best. And he was the best for a long time. That's why he has made so much money in his career and why he will be a Hall of Famer one day.

Williams has nothing left to prove. He has made all the money he's going to make -- he's signed through 2026 and won't get another contract -- plus he's a lock for the Hall of Fame. The only thing left for him to achieve is a Super Bowl championship.

So when the 49ers season went off the rails, it makes sense that he didn't return and try to play on a sprained ankle. He didn't have anything to gain. As opposed to Fred Warner, who played 13 games on a fractured ankle.

The 49ers should expect Williams to miss more time this year -- he hasn't played a full season since 2013. The question is how much time will he miss?

The answer could depend on the 49ers' record.

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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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