Niners Nation
San Francisco has dealt with some injuries at the position throughout the year.
It’s been a different type of year for the San Francisco 49ers, who find themselves thinking about the future with their playoff hopes all but eliminated entering Week 16.
As the season has gone along, there have been just enough issues in a number of games that have allowed other teams to edge past the 49ers, who boast an ugly 2-5 record in one-score games.
Many of those problems have come on the offensive side of the ball, where the 49ers haven’t been nearly as effective as they were back in 2023, scoring fewer touchdowns, while struggling to get consistent production.
With the offense being as inconsistent as it has been, many have looked to blame the offensive line for the team’s shortcomings on that side of the ball. Is that a fair assessment?
Let’s break it down.
To begin, injuries have been a problem along the offensive line, very similarly to how they’ve played a factor at other key positions such as running back and wide receiver.
Left tackle Trent Williams has missed four consecutive games and appears to be done for the season. Left guard Aaron Banks missed multiple games in the concussion protocol.
The assumption would be that San Francisco would’ve struggled without those two players, but the 49ers have actually fared well enough along the offensive line with Jaylon Moore and Ben Bartch in on the left side to be functional enough on the edges.
“Jaylon’s done a good job. Last week his hip started bothering him in warmups, so last week probably wasn’t as good a game as he’s had in some of the other two. He’s done a good job,” offensive line coach Chris Foerster said about Moore. “There’s a lot of things he can still work on to be better. Starting consistently week after week becomes an issue as always. They start getting a book on you, things you’re doing that you need to fix and work on to get better. He held it his own last week and did a good job.”
While Moore isn’t someone you’d consider a front-tier starter, he’s produced in the role that San Francisco has expected him to play as a swing tackle.
“I think [he’s] gotten better. Leaps and bounds is measured, but he’s doing a good job. He’s doing a good job. Has he proven to be an upper-echelon starter in the National Football League? Probably not at this point. Is he in middle of the pack down to second? Where’s he rank one to 32 or 64 starters in the League at tackle? Where does he fit in that thing? I think he is somewhere in there,” Foerster continued about Moore.
“I don’t think he’s outside the realm of starting. He’s ideal as a swing guy, obviously because you have a guy that can step in and play at a starting level because he has done that through these years he’s...
