After all the moves the 49ers made in free agency and the draft this year, it's clear which position currently is the weakest on their roster.
The offensive line.
It's worse than it was a year ago. It lost starting left guard Aaron Banks who signed a four-year, $76 million contract with the Packers this offseason and the 49ers didn't sign or draft a replacement. So they probably will have a competition between three backups: Spencer Burford, Ben Bartch and Nick Zakelj.
Banks isn't a great player, but he's proven and dependable. The past two years, he missed only six games and gave up just 1 sack. As opposed to Bartch who has an extensive injury history, and Burford who gave up 11 sacks from 2022 to 2023 before getting benched in 2024, and Zakelj who has played just 174 snaps in his entire career.
At left tackle, the 49ers have Trent Williams, who still is excellent but certainly is declining and injury-prone. Behind him, the 49ers signed D.J. Humphries, who is a starting left tackle, so they have insurance in case Williams goes down. That's good.
And Dominick Puni, who was outstanding as a rookie, should improve in his second season in the NFL. And Colton McKivitz could continue to improve as well, although he still gave up eight sacks last season despite the strides he took.
Overall, the 49ers didn't do enough to make this unit better. They let Banks walk and replaced him with cheap backups.
What a strange way to protect Brock Purdy.
