3 options 49ers have if Mike McGlinchey isn’t ready for 2022 season

49ers contingency plan No. 1: Find Mike McGlinchey’s replacement in 2022 NFL Draft

Even if Mike McGlinchey is fully recovered by Week 1, or even close to it, it wouldn’t be completely shocking to see the Niners look at the upcoming 2022 NFL Draft for a replacement.

As noted earlier, McGlinchey is entering a contract year. And while he showed some modest improvement from 2020 into the first half of 2021, it surely wasn’t enough to completely warrant San Francisco going all out to extend him on a lucrative deal once the upcoming year expires.

With a ton of money already committed to All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams, the 49ers may already be forced to engage on the cheap on the opposite end, even if it means paying McGlinchey the fully guaranteed $10.88 million while using what’d likely be a day-two draft pick on his replacement.

The Niners are without a first-round pick in this year’s draft, in case you forgot.

Some names to watch for San Francisco might include:

• Darian Kinnard, Kentucky
• Abraham Lucas, Washington State
• Tyler Smith, Tulsa
• Sean Rhyan, UCLA
• Daniel Faalele, Minnesota

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While a bit more outlandish, surely if McGlinchey isn’t healthy, the 49ers could feasibly look to trade him to a tackle-needy team, much like how they did back in 2018 with then-right tackle Trent Brown a day after McGlinchey was drafted.

We won’t get that far down the rabbit hole, though, and McGlinchey would need to pass a physical, which is just as big a question mark. But it’s food for thought.

Instead, the bigger scenario would be the 49ers simply finding his replacement now, possibly pegging that rookie as a day-one starter if McGlinchey is still on the mend.