All season long, the San Francisco 49ers‘ offensive line has looked like a weak link on paper. And the Kansas City Chiefs will be trying to turn it into one on the field during Super Bowl 58.
Trent Williams remains one of the best left tackles in football, so there is a tendency to gloss over the rest of the unit, but none of the other four starters are close to his level. Williams sports a 91.7 PFF overall grade this season including the playoffs. The next-best mark among 49ers linemen is from Jon Feliciano, ostensibly a backup who has played all three interior positions for the team this season and will be starting at right guard in the Super Bowl (80.3). Feliciano has earned a 65.9 PFF pass-blocking grade and is coming off one of his worst games.
The other three starters have PFF grades of 66.0, 64.8 and 55.1, with each performing notably worse in pass protection than in run blocking.
49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has been under pressure 39.0% of the time this season, which is far from catastrophic but is well above the league average.
With the fastest average time to throw in the league, the Miami Dolphins‘ Tua Tagovailoa was under pressure the least this season, at just 24.9%.
That pressure has been largely swept under the carpet by everything else on the 49ers roster dominating to an absurd degree.
Purdy led the league in yards per attempt in the regular season (9.6), more than a full yard per attempt above the next full-time starter.
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