FanHouse JonasJennings

The San Francisco 49ers made a pair of moves on Friday afternoon in regards to their offensive tackle position. After releasing veteran Jonas Jennings, the team agreed to a two-year deal with free agent Marvel Smith, in what amounts to the swapping of one injured tackle for another.

According to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee, Smith's deal is filled with incentives in the event his season is cut short by injuries, which has been the case in each of the past two years.

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This is how you know it's the dregs of the NFL offseason. Teams still have glaring needs to fill, and as the demand for talent far outweighs the supply, inevitably people look at the best of what's left and allow themselves to get overly zealous about a mediocre player. "Savior" talk ensues.

Ex-Raider tackle Barry Sims isn't a bad player. And with offensive line depth at a premium, it makes sense that multiple teams would be interested. But good enough to call his own shots? With the choice of going to the 49ers, Rams, Ravens, or Patriots, Sims has agreed to a two-year deal with San Francisco.

The decision came down to playing time, and he concluded that the 49ers' offensive line situation is more unsettled than St. Louis' (a damning statement, to say the least). He's currently be backing up Jonas Jennings at right tackle, but Jennings has missed 27 games in the last three seasons and is recovering from ankle surgery. Besides, Sims has faced challenges before, besting three top prospects (Mo Collins, Matt Stinchcomb, and Robert Gallery) for the starting job at left tackle in Oakland after going undrafted. There's a very real chance he'll start.

Which most likely means the team is giving up on Chico Rachal as a bookend. It also means that Sims, a casualty of a 4-12 team and a member of some of the worst offensive lines in recent history, will bear the brunt of expectation in San Francisco. Gotta love the offseason.

I don't know Chilo Rachal. He might be a very nice man. Everything I've heard about him as a football player has been positive. But through no fault of his own, he represents everything that's gone wrong with the 49ers over the last few years.

Rachal was a guard in college, and the 49ers made him their second pick despite having a more urgent need at tackle. The thinking was that Rachal would be converted there, but there's one problem -- the 49ers' various decision-makers are at odds over the switch.

Now, this is a pretty big decision for the current state of the team -- a lot of jobs are riding on this season, and as last year proved a lot of the team's success will be riding on the offensive line. You'd have thought that the position would have been a priority this offseason. You'd have also thought that with the ramifications involved in getting this ship righted, the people responsible would at least be able to agree on a course of action. But no. Communication (or mis-, as the case may be), poor planning, and a lack of competent leadership have been the team's downfall since Steve Mariucci left.

And though, yes, Jonas Jennings is penciled in as the starter on the right line (making this all seemingly moot), there's no doubt that the guy who has missed 27 games in the last three seasons will need to be replaced at some point this season, if not from Week 1. The team's interest in Barry Sims indicates that the Rachal experiment isn't going well, making the dissension even more ludicrous and leaving the 49ers yet again holding their ... you know.

NFL Offseason Roadmap is a series focused on the needs of NFL teams as they begin the offseason.

1. Offensive Tackle. There is a reason the 49ers gave up the most sacks in the league last year. There's a reason Frank Gore had a letdown year (a few, actually, but this is one). The 49ers are off to a good start at overhauling the position with Joe Staley, but Staley's moving over to the left side, and it's up in the air how he'll respond. Backup Kwame Harris is a free agent, and the 49ers aren't really fans of either him or Jonas Jennings. The team is going to need a starter at right tackle, whether that's Jennings or someone new. But the team need a general upgrade in talent and depth. Bad news. The 49ers don't have a late first round pick. They could hope that Jeff Otah, Ryan Clady, or Sam Baker fall to them. An intriguing pick for later in the first day is Heath Benedict from Newberry. They'll have to get some help out of the draft, because free agency is scarce. Max Starks looks to be the the best available, meaning someone will grossly overpay for him.

What's worse than losing to the Atlanta Falcons? Hearing those Falcons -- the Falcons -- rub it in.

"All week on tape we saw that they really couldn't block as well as they probably needed to, so a lot of us were excited about our (blitz-heavy) package going in," Lawyer Milloy said.

If by "needed to," Milloy meant "not only prevent Alex Smith from getting sacked twice, but also give him any semblance of time to do anything with the football other than throw it wildly to prevent a decapitation," yes, the line didn't block as well as they probably needed to. Anyone who's seen a 49ers game this season had already reached that same conclusion, but to hear it put so plainly from another player ... it just stings, doesn't it?

Well, it's getting worse before it gets better. Left tackle Jonas Jennings, who has already missed the last two games with a high ankle sprain, isn't getting back into the lineup this year. Potentially joining him in the near future is guard Justin Smiley. Smiley suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder diving to recover a Michael Robinson fumble yesterday. He tore the labrum in his other shoulder last year and missed no time, but this injury is considered much worse. To confirm, he'll visit THE MAN for a second opinion.

So the 49ers are pretty much completely out of the race in the NFC West. But they're in a fun little cold war of sorts with the Rams for most injured offensive linemen, eh?

After proclaiming Alex Smith and Vernon Davis as probable starters for this week's match against the Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-men, Mike Nolan has done an about face on one of those guys.

"It's tough because I'm competitive and I think I can do it," Smith said. "But to not have practiced for a couple weeks and go out there and not be 100 percent confident in your arm and what it can do, it probably wouldn't be the best thing for this team in the big picture. It's a long season, and I'll continue to work hard to get back on the field."

Those plans to have Smith helm a more wide-open offense will have to wait another week, I guess.

While the 49ers' offense hasn't been tremendous with Smith or Trent Dilfer under center, it's not exactly difficult to see that they're still much better with the young guy on the field. This will hold especially true this week, as Dilfer's mobility behind an underachieving offensive line could be a liability.

You see, Osi Umenyiora (who took Winston Justice's cleats as a war trophy, I believe) will be eyeing Dilfer like a porterhouse, and tackle Jonas Jennings is already talking about the task of slowing him down. The 49ers are fourth in most sacks allowed, so this is a game where Smith, though not the most nimble of guys, would have come in handy.

The 49ers' offensive line has been pretty underwhelming this year. That should come as no surprise to anyone who's watched them play. But how bad? According to Football Outsiders, they rank 31st in run blocking and 28th in pass protection, although if you ask Alex Smith he might tell you that second ranking is a bit too kind, if you could get him to answer without him suffering 'Nam-esque flashbacks about Rocky Bernard.

One of those offensive linemen is left tackle Jonas Jennings. According to the gents at FO, the 49ers rank 25th in Adjusted Line Yards aimed at Jennings. So imagine how much worse it's going to get when he misses this Sunday's game.

"He's got a personal matter he's dealing with," Mike Nolan said after practice. "He will come back at some point. It's a private matter. I don't care to comment beyond that. It's a personal issue. He's healthy."

Nolan would not speculate on when Jennings might return to the team. The 49ers have a bye next week and play again Oct. 21 at the New York Giants.

Things just keep getting worse for the 49ers, which always seems to happen to the teams with all the preseason hype. At least Jennings isn't injured, but at this point the 49ers are on a downhill slide and can't afford to lose many more games before the season officially gets away from them. And, of course, the 49ers play the Ravens this weekend. The Ravens. Against the 49ers offensive line. Yeah, that should get ugly.