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So, the San Francisco 49ers’ offensive line issues grew over the last week. First, it was just finding a left guard and a successor for Trent Williams. Now it could turn into finding his replacement.
Nevertheless, another guard would help, and ESPN’s Aaron Schatz has the 49ers taking the services of Joel Bitonio in his projected free agent signing for the team. At 34 years of age, Bitonio has spent his entire career with the Cleveland Browns. Sportrac has him valued at an annual average of $10.3 million.
Would the 49ers be willing to put 34-year-old Bitonio next to 37-year-old Trent Williams (assuming the Niners and Williams can work out his contract situation) on the left side of their offensive line? There is an opening here, and a chance for Bitonio to finally go after a Super Bowl ring with a real contender.
He ranked third among all guards with a 96.4% pass block win rate last season, and his run block win rate of 72.3% was above average. Alijah Vera-Tucker would also be an interesting signing for the 49ers if they wanted to go younger at left guard instead.
What gets me drooling is the win rates: 96.4% pass block, 72.3% run block. Originally, just having Christian McCaffrey run the direction of Trent Williams was a solid call. Now you have both Williams AND Bitonio? That could help the run game. Get a center, and we’ll have a lot of this run game thing figured out.
Oh, and get this: the last time Bitonio missed a game was 2023. And that was just two games the entire season. The last time he played fewer than 10 NFL games was in 2015. Of course, if that electrical substation theory has any traction, he may see something different in red and gold, but we won’t consider that scenario just yet.
Of course, that’s assuming the 49ers keep Williams. We don’t know what’s going on there, and with few options behind him, he’s a priority, as Nicholas was kind to point out the other day. This could have been a bit easier had they gotten a left tackle of the future at some point, but who plans for that?
Back to Bitonio, the age could be concerning, but Williams is 37 and has no sign of slowing down. What do you think of this fit for the 49ers? Is this a worthy free agent signing?