Jaylon Moore and Tom Compton to rotate at RT until one player separates himself

The 49ers convincingly handled the Jaguars Sunday. Equally as necessary, the team didn’t leave Jacksonville with any severe injuries. Cornerback Davonte Harris had an MRI on his knee. Head coach Kyle Shanahan is hopeful Harris returns to practice this week.

Shanahan added that Laken Tomlinson had an ankle injury, and he’ll be limited this week. Since coming over in a trade from the Lions, Tomlinson has played in all 73 games. He’s been the iron man along this offensive line during the past few seasons. The 49ers can ill afford to lose Tomlinson.

During Sunday’s game, rookie right tackle Jaylon Moore came out of the game just before the 49ers began their two-minute drive to end the first half. Moore didn’t return until late in the fourth quarter to replace Trent Williams at left tackle.

I figured that Moore was benched after allowing a quarterback hit and a sack due to miscommunication early in the game. On the play, the entire offensive line did a “full-slide” to the right. Everyone except Moore got the memo, which led to a sack.

Even with a couple of mistakes in the first half, pulling a rookie after an error or two isn’t the message you want to send. As it turns out, the plan was to rotate Moore and veteran Tom Compton the entire time. Here’s Shanahan on the 49ers playing time at right tackle:

“Nothing prompted it. That was the plan going in. We were going to rotate them and play both of them. I didn’t even know until after the game that Tom played the whole second half and I asked [offensive line coach] Chris [Foerster] why that happened and we just didn’t have that many plays. And by the time we got the ball back, he kept it that way, but I see it not changing so far. We’ll see how practice goes this week, but both of those guys are about at the same pace for us. One’s got a lot more experience, which makes him a little more consistent, but we also believe in Jaylon and what he has done and what he can become. So, we’re trying to play both of them until we see a bigger difference.”

So, based on Shanahan’s answer, Moore will continue to start while Compton rotates. Moore played 65% of the snaps while Compton played 48% against the Jaguars.

Moore’s athleticism is impressive. He covers far more ground in the running game than Compton, which bodes well for the 49ers. And while Compton has the veteran tag, we saw him give up two sacks against the Cardinals.

What do you think should happen at right tackle?