49ers offensive lineman Daniel Brunskill suffered a hamstring injury during the team’s preseason victory over the Packers on Friday, as Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. Head coach Kyle Shanahan indicated that the ailment will keep Brunskill on the sidelines for “a few weeks.”
It will be interesting to see if this injury has a domino effect on San Francisco’s O-line plans. Brunskill started all 17 regular season games at right guard for the Niners in 2021, but he has taken all of his training camp snaps at center. He and Jake Brendel have been battling to replace the retired Alex Mack at the pivot, and though previous reports indicated that the team does not plan to sign a free agent center, Brunskill’s injury could leave the club with plenty of inexperience up front.
While nine-time Pro Bowler Trent Williams is entrenched as the blindside blocker, 2021 second-rounder Aaron Banks is the presumptive starter at LG, and he appeared in only five offensive snaps in his rookie season (though Shanahan said Banks was ready to be a starter by the end of the year). With fourth-round rookie Spencer Burford penciled in as the starting RG, San Francisco is already planning to have two very green players at the guard positions. Although the majority of his snaps have come at guard, Brunskill at least has significant recent starting experience, and he saw 546 snaps at center in the 2020 season. Brendel, meanwhile, did not play at all in the 2019-20 campaigns, and he saw just six offensive snaps in 2021. He has accumulated a grand total of three career starts, all of which came with the Dolphins in 2018.
So a Banks-Brendel-Burford triumvirate in the middle of the line would perhaps represent a less-than-ideal scenario for second-year passer Trey Lance, and Brunskill’s prognosis could speculatively compel the team to look for outside help. J.C. Tretter and Matt Paradis are the most accomplished options on the free agent market, and while neither player has received confirmed interest in their services this offseason, the lack of suitors for Tretter could be explained by the stances he has taken as NFLPA president.
Presumably, a team with a major hole at center would overlook Tretter’s union-related work in order to fill that void, although the Browns may be back in play for their five-year starter now that Nick Harris is likely done for the season.
Damn here we go again