Eleven Days To The Cutdown And Jake Brendel Still Has No Settled Backup
No published account has placed Brett Toth at a practice since August 5, and the two men who took all 77 center snaps of the preseason opener are on neither local roster projection. Wednesday was a walk-through with no media availability, so the job sat where it has sat since the eighth.
The 49ers walked through on Wednesday and nobody outside the building saw it. The club's own practice and media schedule, published August 14, lists the day exactly as it lists Monday: walk-through, no media availability. Tuesday's joint practice in El Segundo is still the last evidence anyone has. The next arrives Thursday night at SoFi Stadium.
Nobody from this site was at any of it. Everything below is sourced to published reporting and to the club's own pages, read in a browser Wednesday afternoon.
The oldest open question on this roster is who snaps the ball when Jake Brendel does not. Brendel is 33 and in his ninth season, per the club's roster page, and he is the only true center among the nine linemen this board projects. This tracker has carried the tenth offensive line spot as vacant since August 8, with the role named as backup center rather than a spare body.
It was not vacant before that. Brett Toth held it at a grade of 7, inside the projection. He missed August 5 and August 6, the club disclosed a concussion on August 8, and he went to 6 and out. No published account has placed him at a practice in the fourteen days since. Cam Inman, counting five concussed 49ers on Tuesday for Bay Area News Group, wrote that all of them remain sidelined except Carver Willis, who cleared August 10.
The one game that has tested the depth behind Brendel tested it without him. Brendel was out of uniform against Tennessee on August 13, held out with Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, Mike Evans, Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams. Drake Nugent took all 44 of the first unit's snaps at center and Doug Kramer Jr. took the second unit's 33, per Kyle Posey's snap chart at Niners Nation. That is 77 center snaps and no Brendel.
They did not go well. Mike Masala of Niners Wire, reviewing the loss: "Drake Nugent and Doug Kramer Jr. filled in for Jake Brendel on Thursday, and they weren't overly impressive. In fact, there were multiple poor snaps." Posey's clip-by-clip read has a shotgun exchange coming loose under Nugent at 4:03 of the second quarter.
Two published projections fill the room, and neither one keeps a healthy second center. Matt Maiocco's, at NBC Sports Bay Area on August 14, carries ten offensive linemen and puts Toth eighth. David Lombardi's, at The San Francisco Standard on August 16, carries nine and also keeps Toth, with Connor Colby on thin ice and Nugent, Kramer and Isaac Alarcon listed among the likely cuts. This board projects Lombardi's nine with Colby in Toth's place, and leaves the tenth spot open rather than promote somebody to make a counter read 53.
Three projections, three arrangements, and the man two of them lean on has not been seen at work since the first week of the month.
Nobody has been brought in to settle it either. The only offensive lineman San Francisco has added since the opener is Nick Zakelj, re-signed August 17 a week after being released to make room for Kramer, and the club lists him as a tackle. Zakelj is still not on the roster page, and neither is Evan Anderson, signed the 18th. The page lags its own transaction log.
Left guard did not move, because there was nothing on Wednesday to move it. Willis took the first-team reps in El Segundo, and Shanahan's window for a decision runs about two weeks from Tuesday. That expires September 1. The roster is set August 30.
Transactions. The club's log, read Wednesday at 3:07 p.m. PT, carries nothing dated 08/19; its most recent entry remains the August 18 Evan Anderson signing and the waive/injured designation for Titus Leo. San Francisco settled with defensive lineman K.J. Henry on 08/18, per the league transaction wire, and that is on no page the club publishes.
Kickoff is 7:00 p.m. PT Thursday, and Shanahan said Tuesday he expects a number of starters to play, unlike last week. Whether Brendel is one of them decides whether the game produces evidence about his backup or another night of it. After that there is one preseason game left, at Las Vegas on August 27, three days before the roster is due.
Sources: The club's practice and media schedule, 49ers.com via 49ers Webzone, published August 14, 4:08 p.m. The club's own roster page, transaction log and schedule page, all read in a browser August 19 between 3:00 and 3:10 p.m. PT. Kyle Posey, Niners Nation, August 14, on snap counts and on the second-quarter exchange. Mike Masala, Niners Wire, August 14. Matt Maiocco, NBC Sports Bay Area, August 14. David Lombardi, The San Francisco Standard, August 16, 4:04 p.m. Cam Inman, Bay Area News Group, August 18. The Kyle Shanahan transcript, 49ers Webzone, August 18.
