49ers pre-draft formal meetings suggest they are serious about taking an offensive tackle early

The 49ers have met with the top offensive tackles in the draft.

The San Francisco 49ers are overdue when it comes to upgrading at right tackle. Their best player, Trent Williams, missed the second half of the season and turns 37 in July. It’s not a stretch to say we’ve seen the best version of Williams. He indeed continues to defy all odds athletically, but health has been an issue throughout his career. Expecting an entire season from Trent again feels like wishful thinking.

At the NFL Combine last week, Director of Player Personnel Tariq Ahmad described why finding a tackle early in the draft is so difficult:

“There’s not a lot of people that have the skillset to play tackle, so it reduces the pool, and they typically go pretty early. There’s obviously a lot that we like early on in the draft. We are very selective of those guys. It is something we’d love to take throughout the draft if the right person is available.”

Judging by which offensive tackles the 49ers have had formal interviews with, a tackle is in the team’s sights within the first two picks. Here’s the list of formal interviews with their overall projections based on the NFL’s Mock Draft database:

Kelvin Banks – LT – Texas (12th)
Armand Membou – RT – Missouri (14th)
Josh Simmons – LT – Ohio State (20th)
Josh Conerly Jr. – LT – Oregon (32nd)

Outside of Conerly, the others are projected to go in the top half of the NFL Draft if we factor in positional value.

Banks Jr. missed the SEC Championship due to an ankle injury but returned the following week. Banks Jr. is an elite pass-blocker who still hasn’t turned 21. Banks Jr. came into the season as a sure-fire top-five pick. ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. explained why he’s no longer viewed that way:

“We thought Kelvin Banks Jr. from Texas would be in this mix, but he had some hiccups we call them, right? Some inconsistent performances banged up later in the year. Didn’t have the type of season you expected from him to be a top-five pick. We thought maybe he’d be in the mix to be the second or third pick. That didn’t happen. So he opened the door for maybe a guy like Josh Simmons.”

Simmons finished last season, allowing one sack and two quarterback hits. He also finished as PFF’s most valuable left tackle in college football based on their wins above average metric.

Membou is closer to the No. 4 overall player than No. 14. He does not lose and has not just beaten but owned some of the prospects considered to be tops in the class:

Membou reached 20.28 miles per hour during his 40-yard dash, which was the second fastest among all offensive linemen. He ran a 4.91 at 6’4”, 332 pounds. Factoring in all of Membou’s testing numbers, Next Gen Stats gave him the highest athleticism score from the Combine. Membou’s broad jump was one foot further than Banks and Conerly Jr. He’s a dominant football player and an elite athlete. I get Lane Johnson vibes, which is easily worth the No. 11 overall pick.

Simmons didn’t allow a sack or a quarterback hit in 2024. It’s worth noting that he only played in seven games after suffering a torn patellar tendon. At the NFL Combine, Simmons said that he is “way ahead of schedule and that he will “probably be cut loose mid-April to give everybody a good pro day.”

Finally, Conerly Jr. finished as PFF’s 98th-best player of 2024. Depending on how you weigh certain games will determine how you feel about Conerly Jr. When he did not play against Ohio State, Conerly allowed three pressures on the season, with two coming in the first two weeks of the season. In two games against the Buckeyes, Conerly allowed six pressures.

The 49ers have enough picks to package together and move back into the first round if one of these players falls into their range. It’ll be tempting, especially if a player with Membou’s pedigree slips. Colton McKivitz finished 2024 with the second-highest percentage of blown blocks against the pass. That is not a recipe for success.