{"id":752547,"date":"2026-07-09T12:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752547\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T12:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T12:40:11","slug":"andrew-whitworth-doubts-49ers-confidence-drafting-o-lineman-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752547\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Whitworth doubts 49ers\u2019 confidence drafting O-lineman \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trent Williams<\/a> believes he could only have two more seasons in him before retirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What does that mean for the 49ers, who haven\u2019t necessarily found a promising prot\u00e9g\u00e9 for the future Hall of Fame left tackle?<\/p>\n

The last time the 49ers used a first- or second-round pick on an offensive lineman was in 2021<\/a>, when they drafted guard Aaron Banks at No. 48 overall. Former Pro Bowl tackle Andrew Whitworth believes that\u2019s not on accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it does scream that maybe they just don\u2019t have a lot of confidence in their ability to select the right one, because this is the problem with offensive linemen: When you\u2019re going to allocate a first-round pick or second-round pick to an offensive lineman, a lot of people love that theory, but you better be damn good at picking it,\u201d Whitworth told NBC Sports Bay Area\u2019s Matt Maiocco at the American Century Championship on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause when you hit on an offensive lineman, it can be unbelievable for your franchise early in the draft because a great offensive line, a great D-line is the story to successful football teams. But when you miss on a high pick like that \u2026 you draft an unproductive lineman, you are cooked because now you\u2019re getting a second, third, fourth-tier lineman who\u2019s going to have to play.”<\/p>\n

As for Banks, he\u2019s no longer with San Francisco after signing a four-year, $77 million deal<\/a> with the Green Bay Packers; 2018 selection Mike McGlinchey (the last lineman drafted in the first round by the 49ers) also is not with the franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of coaches, a lot of GMs and scouts and everything else out there that, I don\u2019t know if they understand the position as well as maybe they think they do,” Whitworth told Maiocco. “I think that\u2019s a tough position. You have to have some rare traits to be really good at that. So that\u2019s why I think every year there\u2019s a couple just primo guys that if you don\u2019t get one of them, you\u2019re guessing a little bit and you\u2019re hoping that there\u2019s some development things that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

While San Francisco has refrained from spending many early draft picks on their O-line, the team\u2019s offense has still consistently been one of the best in the league. For that, Whitworth credits one gigantic reason: Trent Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve had arguably — what I would consider in my opinion — the greatest of all time in Trent Williams as their left tackle,\u201d Whitworth told Maiocco. \u201cBut when he\u2019s gone, we are going to have to draft a guy. We are going to have to develop some young guys that become elite guys if we want to continue to have success, because a lot of their offensive success has been built around Trent. If you look at their team when he\u2019s not in there, there\u2019s a huge difference and fall-off in their production offensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to replace a player like Williams, but the 49ers eventually will have to draft a top-tier lineman if they hope to keep their offense clicking once the time comes for the 15-year veteran to hang up his cleats.<\/p>\n

Download and follow the 49ers Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trent Williams believes he could only have two more seasons in him before retirement. What does that mean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[322410,10035,349,560,99,28658],"class_list":["post-752547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-american-century","tag-matt-maiocco","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sports","tag-trent-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}