49ers offensive guards: Better, worse, or same in 2017?

The San Francisco 49ers face a lot of questions surrounding their roster in 2017, with the new front office and coaching staff bringing numerous changes. It is going to take some time to figure out where this team stands. The team was incredibly active in free agency, and followed that with plenty of work in the 2017 NFL Draft.

With that in mind, I thought we would take a look at each position, compare it to various points last year, and consider whether the unit is better, worse, or the same compared to last year. The table includes the current group of players, and then a list of players on the 90-man roster for the first preseason game, the players on the Week 1 53-man roster, and the players on the Week 17 53-man roster. The idea is to compare this year with last year across the board. The roster changes from August to December, so I’m including three separate markers just to provide an overall view of the position last year.

We move on to the offensive guard position.

The 49ers did not make dramatic changes at the guard position this offseason, but similar to right tackle, they brought in some competition. The team returns starting guards Joshua Garnett and Zane Beadles, but signed Brandon Fusco as a free agent. Offensive line coach John Benton has said the three of them are competing for the two starting spots. The team would seem to also have the loser of the center competition between Jeremy Zuttah and Daniel Kilgore as a possible option.

Similar to the offensive tackle position, the guard unit does not have drastic changes. However, like Trent Brown, Joshua Garnett has a critical year of experience under his belt. It remains to be seen how he’ll perform in the new blocking scheme, but his former head coach, David Shaw, thinks he will benefit from this new scheme. That alone would offer some hope for improvement from the guards this season.