{"id":717087,"date":"2026-01-30T18:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/717087\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T18:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:00:22","slug":"49ers-address-key-future-need-in-nfl-com-2026-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/717087\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers address key future need in NFL.com 2026 mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At some point, the San Francisco 49ers will have to address the future of the left tackle position. Right tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/McKiCo00.htm\" data-playername=\"Colton McKivitz\" title=\"Colton McKivitz stats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Colton McKivitz<\/a>, whose play improved this past season, is 29 years old and under contract through 2028. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/W\/WillTr21.htm\" data-playername=\"Trent Williams\" title=\"Trent Williams stats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trent Williams<\/a>, however, is 37 and signed for just one more season. While Williams has expressed interest in playing longer, the 2026 season could realistically be his last.<\/p>\n<p>NFL.com draft analyst Eric Edholm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/eric-edholm-2026-nfl-mock-draft-1-0-two-receivers-in-top-five-patriots-seahawks-bolster-elite-defenses\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">released his first 2026 NFL mock draft<\/a> and has general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan reinforcing quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/P\/PurdBr00.htm\" data-playername=\"Brock Purdy\" title=\"Brock Purdy stats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brock Purdy<\/a>&#8216;s protection by selecting Utah offensive tackle Caleb Lomu with the No. 27 overall pick.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s not a physically dominant blocker, but Lomu has the strong technique and good balance to be a starting left or right tackle,&#8221; Edholm wrote. &#8220;The 49ers won&#8217;t have Trent Williams forever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Lomu allowed eight pressures and zero sacks across 383 pass-blocking snaps during the 2025 season. His 82.1 pass-blocking grade marked a career high, though his 62.0 run-blocking grade represented a noticeable drop from his 70.1 mark in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The 49ers place a premium on run blocking, giving Lomu ample opportunity to improve an area that PFF identified as a weakness in his play in 2025. He also profiles as a natural long-term replacement at left tackle, having logged 1,570 snaps at the position over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Lomu\u2014listed at 6-foot-6 and 308 pounds\u2014isn&#8217;t ready to start immediately, he would benefit from developing behind a future Hall of Fame offensive lineman in Williams, who remains one of the NFL&#8217;s most dominant and reliable forces in the trenches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At some point, the San Francisco 49ers will have to address the future of the left tackle position.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,2644,4823,7,2810,2812,6,1161,252,2624,2623,2983],"class_list":{"0":"post-717087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-brock-purdy","10":"tag-colton-mckivitz","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-john-lynch","13":"tag-kyle-shanahan","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-san-francisco","16":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","17":"tag-sanfrancisco","18":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","19":"tag-trent-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115985359016603869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}