The San Francisco 49ers are stacked at nearly every single position, even those who don’t often stand out to the naked eye.
Besides playmakers like Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle, or even Nick Bosa, Kyle Shanahan can brag about coaching the best offensive tackle in the game.
Trent Williams has earned that distinction throughout the years, so it wasn’t surprising to see him topping PFF’s list for the best OTs in the league, sitting ahead of fellow superstars Christian Darrisaw, Andrew Thomas, Kaleb McGary, Kolton Miller, Tristan Wirfs, Lane Johnson, Brian O’Neill, Penei Sewell, and Laremy Tunsil.
Highest-graded tackles from the regular season pic.twitter.com/vpEsFqjClz
— PFF (@PFF) January 12, 2023
On top of his god-given physical traits, his knowledge and relentless work ethic have made him a beloved and respected figure in the locker room:
“Trent is just a wealth of knowledge in general,” Niners’ DL Kerry Hyder Jr. told The Athletic. “Being around Trent every day, he always tells you something that you can work with or how you can rush someone. You’ve got some film to look at, you can bring it over to him. (…) It’s a wealth of knowledge.”
The Niners boast one of the best running games in the league, and plenty of that could and should be credited to Williams’ stellar play.
He’s also given rookie QB Brock Purdy more than enough time to operate in the pocket and revamp this offense from the Trey Lance/Jimmy Garoppolo regime.
Even with Mr. Irrelevant behind center, the Niners are a strong candidate to win it all this season, and that will continue to be the case for as long as Williams is healthy.
