In a year that’s rapidly getting away from them, the 49ers need to let their 2021 draft picks get on the field. Their Week 9 loss to the Arizona Cardinals provided the latest evidence that San Francisco is facing some long-term issues at positions that could be filled with rookies they selected in this year’s draft.
Let’s put the quarterback aside for a moment because Garoppolo wasn’t the problem Sunday, and the plan for Trey Lance was made clear: he’s not going to start until the 49ers are out of contention. There are a slew of other picks not getting regular playing time through Week 9 and it feels like now is the time to see if the first-year players can either help this year, or develop to be effective in 2022 and beyond.
We can start at right guard where starter Daniel Brunskill struggled again. Notre Dame offensive guard Aaron Banks was taken in the second round to compete for the starting right guard spot. He’s been a healthy scratch in all but one game. Perhaps he’s so bad at football that putting him in the game would endanger the players he’s blocking for. If that’s the case then San Francisco has an entirely separate issue. If it’s not the case, he should be suiting up and getting at least some snaps to see how he responds in game situations.
The secondary is another problem the 49ers tried to address via the NFL draft. They took Michigan cornerback Ambry Thomas in the third round, then double-dipped and took Oregon CB Deommodore Lenoir in Round 5. Neither player has gotten consistent time this season while Josh Norman and Dre Kirkpatrick get meaningful snaps at cornerback.
It’s not like Thomas and Lenoir are sitting behind perennial Pro Bowlers. Norman hasn’t been good and Kirkpatrick has been downright abysmal. It’s hard to imagine the rookies would be substantially worse, and the benefit of getting real, professional snaps could help either first-year player develop into a valuable piece of the secondary moving forward.
Then there’s running back Trey Sermon, who the 49ers moved two fourth-round picks to trade up for. He was a healthy scratch Sunday, and all but two of his 31 carries came in the two weeks where fellow rookie Elijah Mitchell was out with a shoulder injury. Mitchell is clearly the better of the two rookie backs, but Sermon getting zero work is still perplexing. That’s especially true considering how good he looked in Week 4 against the Seahawks and how much better Mitchell has gotten through playing.
The 49ers may view playing time for their rookies as a white flag of surrender. Head coach Kyle Shanahan alluded to this notion after his team’s Week 7 loss to the Colts.
However, after nine weeks they’re 3-5 and there’s not a lot of reason to believe Brunskill, Kirkpatrick and Norman are part of the solution. If the rookies can’t make their way onto the field in this scenario, it’s tough to envision a time where they can get time. And like with Banks, if nine weeks into their pro careers the rookies are incapable of even suiting up, the 49ers have a serious front office problem to address immediately.
Maybe Shanahan is waiting for the playoff chase to be officially over, but that isn’t necessary. The rookies need to get playing time to either develop or show that the 49ers need to make new investments on the offensive line and in the secondary.