Breaking Down San Francisco 49ers Offensive Line in Advance of 2016 Season

Niner Noise continues our position-by-position breakdown of the San Francisco 49ers ahead of training camp and the 2016 NFL season. In this article, we break down the Niners’ offensive line and how offseason changes may impact what was once a major weakness.

The San Francisco 49ers offensive line was one of the worst in the NFL over the course of the 2015 season.

According to Pro Football Focus’ Khaled Elsayed, the Niners O-line ranked No. 27 overall in the league for last year’s efforts. This unit was 14th in pass-blocking efficiency and a lowly 30th in run-blocking capability.

So it’s no wonder general manager Trent Baalke made some changes to this group during the offseason. But how will these changes affect what San Francisco does in the upcoming 2016 campaign?

Let’s try to answer that.

Anyone who watched the 49ers long enough last year could provide the evidence how permeable and problematic the O-line was over the course of 2015.

It’s a unit that allowed a whopping 53 sacks on the year — 45 were attributed to the O-line, according to PFF (subscription required) — and struggled to open up lanes for the 49ers rushing attack.

Hence Elsayed’s abysmal run-blocking ranking.

Realizing changes were necessary, the Niners parted ways with ineffective guard Jordan Devey and let veteran free-agent guard Alex Boone walk via free agency.

Baalke also brought in free-agent acquisition Zane Beadles, to fill Boone’s spot, and tabbed former Stanford run-mauling guard Joshua Garnett at the tail end of Round 1 of the 2016 NFL Draft.

San Francisco subsequently added tackles Fahn Cooper and John Theus later in the draft.

Currently, the 49ers O-line is comprised of the following members on the team’s 90-man preseason roster:

• T Alex Balducci
• G Zane Beadles
• T Trent Brown
• T Fahn Cooper
• G Joshua Garnett
• G/T Colin Kelly
• C Daniel Kilgore
• C Marcus Martin
• G/T Blake Muir
• G/T Erik Pears
• G Norman Price
• G Ian Silberman
• T Joe Staley
• T John Theus
• G Brandon Thomas
• G Andrew Tiller

Some of the depth guys — Alex Balducci, Colin Kelly, Blake Muir, Norman Price and Ian Silberman — are long shots to make the roster. They’ll be competing for the back end of the depth chart and, most likely, a chance to land on the practice squad or with another team altogether.

But we can get a glimpse of what San Francisco’s O-line may look like when Week 1 of the regular season rolls around.

Veteran left tackle Joe Staley, coming off a Pro Bowl effort in 2015, will hold down the far left of the line. There isn’t much of a concern there.

In all likelihood, Beadles fills the void left by Boone at left guard.

Beadles was once a Pro Bowler with the Denver Broncos back in 2012 but struggled when he signed on with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2014. If there is a bonus here, San Francisco’s biggest free-agent signing has only missed two games out of 96 regular-season contests.

There is also the thought Beadles should perform better in head coach Chip Kelly’s inside-zone scheme — one in which the offensive lineman thrived during his time with Denver.

Should this be the case, the 49ers may experience somewhat of an upgrade.

At center, Daniel Kilgore’s return from a 2014 leg injury can’t be welcomed enough. Last year proved 22-year-old center Marcus Martin wasn’t cut out to be an everyday starter, as he finished 2015 with a minus-45.6 overall grade, per PFF — among the lowest in the NFL out of qualifying linemen.

But there are a few more concerns moving from left to right.

The 49ers hope the right guard position will be adequately filled by Garnett, whose run-blocking prowess at Stanford earned him a first-round draft selection.

Just take a look at what he was capable of doing in run support at the collegiate level:

But Garnett will need to improve his pass protection — something his former head coach at Stanford, David Shaw, even noted during NFL Network’s coverage of the NFL Draft last April.

And while there may be concerns whether or not the rookie can adjust to a zone scheme, Niner Noise’s own Rich Madrid pointed out why this might not be as big an issue as some thing in a very detailed scheme breakdown.

Garnett will have his growing pains — most rookies do — but his efforts should help improve what was a very problematic run-support aspect last season. If he is more of a liability than anything else, the 49ers hope backups like Andrew Tiller or Brandon Thomas will be able to hold the line until the rookie is properly groomed.

And then there’s the right tackle spot.

While either Cooper or Theus may emerge as eventual starters here, especially the former, it’s hard to envision either rookie kicking off 2016 as plug-and-play guys atop the depth chart.

So that leaves the competition open, in all reality, to two linemen — Erik Pears and Trent Brown.

Pears, at 34 years old, endured his fair share of struggles last year. According to PFF, Pears graded out with a minus-30.7 overall mark in 2015 and was responsible for 10 sacks and 37 quarterback pressures.

That’s pretty bad, and it wasn’t surprising to see the 49ers insert then-rookie Brown into a starting job at the end of the year.

But just because Brown earned this role in a seemingly meaningless tail end of a lost season doesn’t mean he’ll do so again to begin 2016.

According to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee (h/t 49erswebzone.com), Brown didn’t appear to be in very good shape for the start of OTAs. Not surprisingly, Pears ended up getting first-team reps throughout most of the 49ers early preseason activities and drills.

As a result, there isn’t any guarantee who starts here.

It’s possible, perhaps likely, fans will see Pears grace the starting lineup in Week 1. He’ll likely make the roster too, given his flexibility to hold down nearly every spot along the O-line.

And Elsayed commented why this could be a problem for San Francisco this season:

"Another line that is heading in the wrong direction. They can only hope that they get Anthony Davis back, because Erik Pears was no ready replacement. Problems at the pivot also caused constant headache on offense. They’re tried injecting some youth, but it just hasn’t paid off."

We can’t, of course, discuss the 49ers O-line without mentioning retired right tackle Anthony Davis.

Davis’ ongoing tweets, like this one, continue to suggest a return to the Niners. And yet zero developments likely point to it not happening.

Fans should give up on this hope, as we pointed out earlier here on Niner Noise.

So right tackle may be another problematic area for San Francisco in 2016 and, realistically, Baalke will be looking for another impact player to upgrade this unit at some point during the 2017 offseason.

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San Francisco’s O-line figures to be better than it was a year ago. But how much improvement is seen remains anyone’s guess.

The clear hope here is for the 49ers line to be stronger at areas of weakness. Oh, and staying healthy will be critical as well. The Niners’ depth here is OK at best, a liability at worst.

If success at the NFL level truly hinges on being strong up front, the 49ers took a step in the right direction by trying to fix the problem. All that’s left is seeing whether or not these efforts will pay off sooner rather than later.

Next: Right Tackle an Area of Uncertainty for the 49ers

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com and Sports-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated.