49ers depth chart: 4 reasons to be concerned about offensive line
By Peter Panacy
49ers offensive line concern No. 1: Aaron Banks’ readiness
There are two sides to the argument with respect to the 49ers’ second-round NFL Draft pick from 2021, offensive guard Aaron Banks.
On the negative side, Banks couldn’t beat out Daniel Brunskill to start at right guard, subsequently suffered an injury during the preseason and then was relegated to the weekly inactive list for most of the first half of the year, only getting five regular-season snaps for the duration of his rookie season.
Sounds like a flop, right?
Possibly, but it’s also important to consider Banks was almost exclusively a left guard in college, and now he’ll be tabbed with returning to his natural position. A year ago, Banks wasn’t going to beat out Laken Tomlinson, and it’s possible the Niners were merely planning ahead for the latter’s eventual departure in free agency.
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With a year under his belt, it’s also fair to assume Banks will be vastly better than the limited amount of preseason field time we saw a season ago.
Still, one must treat Banks as if he was a rookie entering 2022, and he’s still awfully unknown as a starting-caliber commodity.
That should be a concern.