The seventh round of the NFL draft has been good to the San Francisco 49ers in recent years. Now they may have another starter coming out of the draft’s final round.

Connor Colby, the No. 249 overall pick in this year’s draft, stepped into his first preseason action vs. the Denver Broncos and played well. Then he worked in with the first-team offense after presumed starting left guard Ben Bartch went down with an elbow injury. Colby has gotten the attention of head coach Kyle Shanahan and drew heavy praise from the coach in his post-practice press conference Thursday.

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“I think he’s getting better each week,” Shanahan said. “You know, when you get these guys in at first you try not to judge them too hard because it takes a while. But the cool thing about o-lineman, is they just gradually get better each day, they kind of learn what we’re asking. It’s always different techniques. You never have a guy come out college who is going have to run as much as we ask him to as o-line. So, that always takes a number of days, sometimes a number of years. But I think he’s improved a lot here in these last couple weeks.”

Bartch left Tuesday’s practice early and gave way to Colby as the first-team left guard. He sat out Thursday’s joint practice as well, giving Colby another crack at first-team left guard reps.

While Shanahan gave credit to Colby, he mentioned one key thing that may hold him back from moving up the depth chart.

“You don’t get to see a lot of that on Iowa tape and just his size and stuff,” Shanahan said about Colby as a pass blocker. “He has an advantage with his size being in front of people, and his feet and stuff have been able to do it too. So, he’s catching up in the run game, but he’s had more of an advantage in the pass game so far.”

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It’s not a surprise Colby took time to adjust to the 49ers’ run game, but it’s something he’ll need to master if he’s going to have a realistic shot to be a long-term starter in San Francisco. For now, he’s in a battle with Nick Zakelj. If he wins a starting job he’d join Brock Purdy and Jauan Jennings as seventh-round picks who became integral to wins and losses for the 49ers.

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This article originally appeared on Niners Wire: 49ers rookies: OL Connor Colby climbing depth chart