The San Francisco 49ers have avoided spending a premium draft pick on an offensive tackle in recent years, despite knowing that star left tackle Trent Williams is nearing the end of his career.

With no clear successor in place, former NFL offensive tackle and current analyst Andrew Whitworth believes the team may lack confidence in its ability to identify elite talent at the position.


"I think, to me, it does scream that maybe they just don't have a lot of confidence in their ability to select the right one," Whitworth told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area this week at the American Century Championship in South Lake Tahoe.

Whitworth explained that investing an early draft pick in an offensive lineman can completely change the trajectory of a franchise—but only if the team is confident in its evaluation process.

"When you're going to allocate a first-round pick or a second-round pick on an offensive lineman, a lot of people love that theory, but you better be damn good at picking it," Whitworth said. "Because when you hit on an offensive lineman, it could be unbelievable for your franchise early in the draft, because a great offensive line, a great D-line is the story to successful football teams."

However, Whitworth also pointed out the downside of missing on an offensive lineman selected with a premium pick. Unlike some skill-position players who can still contribute in limited roles, a struggling offensive lineman can create significant roster issues.

"You draft an unproductive lineman, you are cooked because now you're getting a second-, third-, fourth-tier lineman who's going to have to play because the money you allocated for this guy is worthless," Whitworth said. "And now, your team is going to struggle because you're not going to get quality reps out of a guy. So, you can both shoot your team forward and really set yourself back when you miss on offensive linemen."


Whitworth also noted that evaluating offensive tackles is one of the more difficult tasks for NFL teams because coaches, general managers, and scouts may overestimate their ability to evaluate the position.

"I think that you have to have some rare traits to be really good at that," Whitworth said. "And that's why I think every year there's a couple of just primo guys that, if you don't get one of them, you're kind of guessing a little bit, and you're hoping that there's some development things that happen."

Whitworth notes that despite their inability to address their offensive line effectively, the 49ers have enjoyed enormous success on offense.

"Now, part of that is because they've had, arguably, what I would consider, in my opinion, the greatest of all time in Trent Williams as a left tackle," Whitworth added. "But when he's gone, we are going to have to draft a guy. We're going to have to develop some young guys that become elite guys if we want to continue to have success, because a lot of their offensive success has been built around Trent.

"And you look at their team when he's not in there, there's a huge difference and falloff in their production offensively."


With Williams expecting to play only a couple of more seasons, finding a long-term answer at offensive tackle will become one of the 49ers' most important roster priorities.



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