Ben Bartch just re-signed, but there’s another player on the roster who might be groomed to take over Aaron Banks’s spot at left guard
The San Francisco 49ers’ recent re-signing of Ben Bartch was necessary for depth purposes. Aaron Banks, the starter from the previous few seasons, is an unrestricted free agent. The current guards on the roster are Dominick Puni, Spencer Burford, who moved to guard last season after injuries, and Bartch.
Those of us who didn’t watch Bartch at practice every day are latching on to his performance against the Buffalo Bills late in the season when Bartch not only held his own but was a noticeable upgrade over Banks. I thought it was telling that Banks hadn’t cleared the concussion protocol for multiple weeks until Bartch went down with an injury.
Bartch suffered a high-ankle sprain in the first quarter against the Chicago Bears. Aside from that Bills game, Bartch played 17 snaps in the other two games he appeared in. So, it’s a bit of a leap of faith if the plan is to extrapolate one promising performance into an entire season — especially when said player suffered an injury one quarter after his first start of the year.
There’s another player the 49ers brought in late in the year who could compete with Bartch, Burford, and the inevitable draft pick the Niners use on an interior offensive lineman.
Matt Hennessy has a base salary of $1.17 million, with a cap number of $1.2 million in 2025. Bartch’s recent one-year deal gave him a base salary of $1.17 million and a cap number of $1.19 million.
Hennessy played three snaps at left guard in Week 18. Back in 2022, he started three games at left guard. He was drafted in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Offensive line coach Chris Foerster had promising remarks about Hennessy when the 49ers signed him in December:
“I remember talking with Mike McDaniel about him and talking with Kyle. We all kind of looked at him and said, ‘Man, we really like this guy.’
It’s like when Garrett Bradbury came out, the kid in Minnesota, same thing, a good fit for our system, a good player for our system. And Matt was that player. We really had high hopes for him. Matt’s been a guy that we’ve always liked, is a good fit for us. And meeting him, I have not been disappointed at all. He is a good fit.”
That’s not to say Hennessy will be Laken Tomlinson and give the 49ers quality starts over the next four seasons, but the pedigree is there. After Tomlinson’s and Banks’s stint, the offense proved they can “get by” with replacement-level play at left guard. That’s Bartch and Hennessy, which mitigates the need to spend big at left guard.