{"id":86303,"date":"2025-08-31T22:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=86303"},"modified":"2025-08-31T22:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:20:08","slug":"49ers-face-major-criticism-over-decision-with-crucial-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=86303","title":{"rendered":"49ers Face Major Criticism Over Decision With Crucial Position"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kyle-shanahan-49ers.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kyle-shanahan-49ers.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kyle-shanahan-49ers.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kyle-shanahan-49ers.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"49ers Face Major Criticism Over Decision With Crucial Position\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>(Photo by Chris Unger\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Apart from Trent Williams, the San Francisco 49ers have seldom pursued big-name offensive linemen in the Kyle Shanahan era. Instead, they\u2019ve favored a cost-effective approach through the draft or making shrewd free-agent signings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Moreover, this approach has allowed the 49ers to spend their money elsewhere on offense, whether it\u2019s paying the likes of Brock Purdy, George Kittle, Christian McCaffery, and Brandon Aiyuk. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Athletic\u2019s Robert Mays warns that Shanahan and Co.\u2019s approach to building an offensive line, successful in the past, could now be coming back to haunt San Francisco.<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cJust this idea that the pass protection isn\u2019t going to be good enough when they get to January\u2014that\u2019s always keeping me up with this team based on the way that they treat this position group,\u201d <\/span>Mays said on \u201cThe Athletic Football Show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cI\u2019m even a <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">little<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> bit more worried about it now than I have been over the last couple of years, because there\u2019s been attrition, talent-wise, among this group.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Could Letting Talent on the Offensive Line Cost the 49ers?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The 49ers have allowed offensive linemen to walk when they get too expensive for their taste, and the latest example of this is Aaron Banks. After four years in the Bay Area, Banks left San Francisco to sign with the Green Bay Packers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cI don\u2019t think Aaron Banks is a perfect player by any stretch, but the fact that they moved on from Aaron Banks and it\u2019s like, all right, Ben Bartch, you\u2019re up now\u2014that is how this team approaches these positions,\u201d Mays added. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re the best lineman that you have outside of Trent Williams, who is now creeping closer and closer to 40 every year, and I worry about him staying healthy, is Dominick Puni, who\u2019s coming into this season hurt after looking really good last year as a rookie.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Does the Approach to Offensive Linemen Have Flaws?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">May ended his rant on the 49ers\u2019 approach to building their offensive line, stating that because some of these players aren\u2019t at the level of a Williams, it can often come back to cost them, maybe not in the regular season, but definitely in the playoffs. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cI think the baseline for this offensive line is concerning, let alone if they get dinged up a little bit,\u201d May said. \u201cAnd this group, and what they\u2019ve always said about it is, we\u2019d rather have pass catchers and weapons. We can scheme around the offensive line. That is often true for 17, even sometimes 19 games a year. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Then they get into the playoffs, and a defensive coordinator like [Steve Spagnuolo] <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">is able to<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> pick on this team and pass protection because of the way <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">that<\/span> <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">they\u2019re constructed<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u201cIt just makes me a little bit uneasy that the players they have up front aren\u2019t <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">going to<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> be good enough in the biggest games of the year. I think they might be good enough for this team to win 11 games in the NFC West, but if your aspirations are bigger than that, I think that\u2019s where I start to get <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">a little bit<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> concerned.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Eduardo Razo Eduardo Razo is a sports journalist covering the NFL for Heavy.com. He previously covered the league for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area &amp; California, and has contributed as a freelance writer for The Sporting News. He also served as an editor for Athlon Sports and Heavy Sports focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo<\/p>\n<h2>More Heavy on 49ers<\/h2>\n<p>Loading more stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The San Francisco 49ers face criticism as their approach to building the offensive line draws scrutiny, raising concerns about 2025 success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":86304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>49ers Face Major Criticism Over Decision With Crucial Position - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=86303\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"49ers Face Major Criticism Over Decision With Crucial Position - 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