The San Francisco 49ers had a rough season in 2024, finishing with in fourth place in the NFC West with a 6-11 record. Their .353 winning percentage was their worst since 2018 when they went 4-12 (.250), which somehow still wasn't bad enough to land in last in the division.
While not much went right for the 49ers last year, they did get some great player up front, especially from center Jake Brendel. The former UCLA Bruin, who originally joined the team back in 2020 but opted out to COVID-19, entered his third season as the starting center and had a great year.
Pro Football Focus gave him a 65.0 overall grade, ranking him 23rd out of 64 qualified centers. He also earned a 71.6 run-blocking grade (13th) and a 55.1 pass-blocking grade (51st).
However, when it comes to the grades from 49ers offensive line coach Chris Foerster, Brendel was the best of the best.
“Fewest amount of missed assignments," Foerster said. "His pass protection was the highest grade, his run blocking grade, pass blocking grade, and his mental errors were the best they’ve been since he’s been here. They’ve been better than any center that we’ve had playing here up to this point.”
Since Kyle Shanahan took over as the team's head coach, the 49ers have had Brendel, Weston Richburg and Alex Mack as their primary starting centers, and in Foerster's mind, this past season was the best yet. According to SIS Data Hub, Brendel had just six blown blocks, which was the fewest of any 49ers offensive lineman in 2024.
Foerster took some issue with the center's PFF grade, saying that they're grading without context.
"It's interesting how he's rated outside of the 32 centers by whatever the grading system is. But I'm not knocking it, because my point is that everybody looks at something different," Foerster told 49ers writer Jake Hutchinson. "So you can knock what I look at and say, 'Oh, you don't know what you're talking about.' That's fine. I know what we asked him to do on every given play and what his role is, what his job is, so I can grade it."
As the 49ers prepare for 2025, Brendel is set to enter his four season as the team's starting center, and if he plays the way he did down the stretch, that should be a strong base for the offense to build on to make it back to the postseason again.
