49ers depth chart: 5 players who’ll be tough cuts in 2020
By Peter Panacy
No. 3: 49ers Offensive Tackle Shon Coleman
Editor’s Update: Shon Coleman has since opted out of the upcoming 2020 season.
On one hand, the Niners weren’t hoping veteran offensive tackle Shon Coleman would have to see any meaningful snaps when they acquired him from the Cleveland Browns early in 2018. After all, he was picked up to be San Francisco’s primary swing tackle backing up the starting duo of Joe Staley and Mike McGlinchey.
Both Staley and McGlinchey were fully healthy for the entirety of 2018, meaning Coleman was relegated to the bench and didn’t see any action.
The 49ers could have used him, of course, in 2019 because both Staley and McGlinchey suffered elongated injuries. Yet Coleman suffered a serious injury of his own, missing all of the year thanks to a season-ending ankle injury he endured during San Francisco’s opening preseason game last year.
The Niners brought Coleman back on a one-year deal to at least compete for a spot. But he’s now looking at younger, cheaper offensive linemen as potential backups, namely Justin Skule and Colton McKivitz, to the would-be starting tandem of McGlinchey and Trent Williams.
Coleman, a third-round pick of the Browns back in 2016, had plenty of promise. And it’s tough to think he’ll see his career in San Francisco could potentially come to an end without having even taken the field in a regular-season contest.