49ers roster 2021: Offensive lineman Alfredo Gutierrez’s cool story

49ers fans won’t witness Alfredo Gutierrez take the field during the regular season this year, but his road to the NFL certainly is a unique one.

It’s no secret the NFL wants to expand well beyond its boundaries within the United States, and bringing aboard international talent should be a great way of doing this.

Aside from a handful of international players here and there dotting NFL rosters, most squads are comprised of US-born players, but teams like the San Francisco 49ers are giving foreign-born players a chance to cut their teeth at the pro level.

This is where offensive lineman Alfredo Gutierrez of Tec de Monterrey comes into play via the NFL’s International Player Pathway.

The entire NFC West was awarded an extra offseason roster spot for players like this, and Gutierrez wasn’t shy about sharing his excitement for his immediate plans, as mentioned via the San Diego Union-Tribune:

"This has been a dream. … Everything is so fast. Football-wise, everything is fast. How to learn the playbook, has to be fast. The practices are fast. The warmups are fast. In the weight room, everything is fast."

Gutierrez started playing youth football in Mexico before moving to the US and playing at Montgomery High School in Chula Vista, California.

Eventually, he returned to Tec de Monterrey to play his college ball and referred to the program as “like the Alabama of Mexico.”

49ers immediate plans for Alfredo Gutierrez

Part of the rules for players added via the NFL’s International Player Pathway specify teams can carry an additional offseason roster spot, meaning the Niners can have a total of 91 players on their offseason roster.

The likelihood of Gutierrez carving out a long-term job within the league is slim, but his massive 6-foot-9, 332-pound frame certainly is enticing enough.

Gutierrez will be featured with most of the third-string offensive linemen throughout training camp, getting vital reps alongside a number of other O-linemen who are desperately trying to either crack the back end of San Francisco’s regular-season roster, the practice squad or at the very least, are auditioning for openings on the 31 other teams out there.

Alfredo Gutierrez won’t make 49ers’ 53-man roster but may land on practice squad

Another one of the program’s benefits is it’ll award teams with an extra spot on a 16-man practice squad, thereby bringing the 49ers’ number up to 17 if they want to keep Gutierrez around.

Gutierrez can’t be activated to the 53-man roster this season, though, but he’ll still be allowed to partake in weekly practices as part of the scout team — essentially a developmental group. Should the Niners promote Gutierrez to the 53-man roster, they’d lose that extra practice squad exemption spot, and it doesn’t seem likely they’d do that at this point.

But for a long-term developmental piece, sticking around for the entirety of 2021 isn’t a bad plan.

Perhaps we’ll have to check back in next year to see how far along Gutierrez has come in his development and whether or not he’s inching closer to earning a regular-season roster spot.