49ers depth chart: 4 reasons to be concerned about offensive line

49ers offensive line concern No. 2: Mike McGlinchey’s health

A quad tear can be a career-ending injury. It was a brutal blow for Mike McGlinchey, who was in line for a contract extension after the 49ers already picked up his fully guaranteed fifth-year option for 2022.

The latter part still stands, but now McGlinchey will have to prove his full bill of health in order to command a second deal with the team that drafted him in Round 1 back in 2018.

If there’s good news here, signs are pointing to McGlinchey being 100 percent by the time training camp rolls around. The Niners didn’t invest an early draft pick on a new tackle, nor did they make a high-profile free-agent signing to either fill the void right away or replace him for the long run.

Despite all that, though, San Francisco still has reasons to be concerned.

McGlinchey won’t be cleared until training camp, so he’s already losing valuable practice reps with a revamped O-line during offseason workouts. And it’ll also likely take him some time to get those proverbial “football legs” back underneath him, meaning camp will have to rapidly accelerate his timeliness towards being fully ready.

While none of us here are doctors, that can always come with increased injury risks.