The San Francisco 49ers made a roster move on Saturday, promoting guard Andrew Tiller from the practice squad to the 53-man roster. The move came a few days after the trade that sent center Nick Easton to the Minnesota Vikings for linebacker Gerald Hodges. Shortly after
From a depth chart stand-point, the move made sense. The team had Easton active the last two weeks, although he did not see any playing time. His departure left the 49ers with Ian Silberman and Trenton Brown as their only reserve linemen. Tiller had a great preseason, and while it did come against reserves, it was still a strong preseason performance. He can only perform against the players he gets to face, and he did a strong job.
The 49ers offensive line has struggled the last three weeks, and it sounds like we could see some changes. I have heard from two separate sources that there will be some kind of change to the offensive line tonight against the New York Giants. I don't know exactly what will happen, but there will be some kind of adjustments.
I do not specifically what changes we'll see, but there are certainly two options we can infer:
1. Move Pears to right guard, move Trenton Brown in at right tackle
2. Replace Jordan Devey at right guard with Brandon Thomas, Ian Silberman or Andrew Tiller
There is a third option as well. The New England Patriots have actually had an offensive line rotation. Not just game-to-game, but drive-to-drive. Could we potentially see that happen at the right guard position? We'll find out for certain tonight, but it sounds like the team is at least recognizing the line has some serious issues. Hopefully adjustments can provide some kind of improvement.