The San Francisco 49ers have largely stayed healthy in recent weeks despite a brutal first-half stretch of the season that seemingly saw one player after another lost to significant injuries.
However, in the Niners' Week 13 road win over the Cleveland Browns, left guard Ben Bartch suffered a season-ending foot injury, a setback that largely flew under the radar in light of his team's recent successes and health.
Prior to that, head coach Kyle Shanahan had been rotating Bartch with fellow lineman Spencer Burford at left guard, and that rotation had been working out well.
Shanahan will now have to figure something else out. And, as it turns out, the Houston Texans may have just given San Francisco's head coach a plausible solution.
49ers can reunite with Laken Tomlinson to help solve O-line depth concerns
On Tuesday, Houston parted ways with veteran left guard Laken Tomlinson, whom it signed to a one-year deal last offseason and subsequently gave him seven starts over the first eight games.
Tomlinson will head to waivers now where teams may claim him. But, should he clear that process (and it wouldn't be a surprise if he did), the 49ers should absolutely be giving a call to his agent.
At 33 years old, Tomlinson is nowhere close to the kind of impact lineman the Niners enjoyed during his previous stint in the Bay Area, which lasted from 2017 through his lone Pro Bowl campaign of 2021 before inking a lucrative free-agent deal with the New York Jets in 2022, subsequently flaming out there.
However, should Tomlinson be tasked with the same kind of rotational duties Bartch had in tandem with Burford, it'd be a boost to Shanahan's O-line down the final stretch.
Currently, rookie Connor Colby is the remaining go-to option to platoon with Burford. And despite a promising start to his NFL career, the 2025 seventh-round draftee gradually turned into more of a liability than a strength.
Tomlinson is a low-risk target for San Francisco, someone who'd arrive on the cheap and already boasts knowledge of Shanahan's offense.
It'd be a seamless and easy addition.