It appears through the first two days of training camp that the 49ers might be repeating a mistake they made last season.
San Francisco in training camp last year handed starting jobs to right guard Spencer Burford and right tackle Colton McKivitz. They both had to play well enough too keep the starting spots, but they were never really pushed with other players rotating in and getting chances with the first team.
In the first two days of camp this year they’ve apparently exercised the same strategy. ESPN’s Nick Wagoner noted on Twitter that Burford has been the lone RG with the first team for both sessions:
If the Niners intend to rotate Spencer Burford and Jon Feliciano at RG, they haven’t yet shown it. It’s been Burford with the starters so far at RG. Feliciano has worked at center (even a few snaps with the 1s) and RG, which tracks because he is the backup center.
As Wagoner notes, the team may have confidence in Feliciano since he finished the year last year as the starting RG. They could be giving Burford extra reps as his initial chance to try and win that spot. Rookie Dominick Puni should also be a factor at RG and they may still be acclimating him to the NFL before launching into first-team reps. That would make sense since offensive line play in camp is hard to judge until pads are on anyway.
What wouldn’t make sense if for the second year in a row they didn’t offer any real competition for Burford. Perhaps he steps in this year and takes a leap. That’s on the table. He’s not a bad player, but his inability to hold a starting job each of his first two years is certainly a concern. The 49ers have to exhaust all options when finding their five best offensive linemen, and rolling into 2024 without at least testing out the right guard competition would be a mistake.
