While it’s tough to draw firm conclusions from a couple days of padded practice, one reporter’s observation from Day 2 of 49ers training camp stood out as a budding problem.
ESPN’s Nick Wagoner noted that San Francisco is struggling to find a capable backup center. An issue from OTAs with backup centers getting snaps to the quarterbacks has continued to arise in camp.
Wagoner posted this in his Day 2 takeaways:
“…the snaps by any center not named Jake Brendel continue to be all over the place. Keith Ismael had some misfires today, including a botched exchange with Lance. They’ll need someone to emerge there. Perhaps it’s Feliciano.”
Ismael is one of the team’s options at center who has NFL game experience. The San Francisco native was a fifth-round pick of Washington in the 2020 draft and started five games for them in 2021. He’s yet to find his footing with the 49ers though.
Second-year OL Nick Zakelj, a sixth-round pick last year, is also making the transition to center. He was an offensive tackle in college though so that move won’t be an easy one to make.
The other non-Jon Feliciano option is undrafted rookie Corey Luciano who started just one year at the University of Washington.
Feliciano is the most likely backup C candidate since he can also play the other two interior positions.
This is where things could get tricky for the 49ers though. Finding OL depth isn’t particularly easy and having versatile players helps, but if starting C Jake Brendel goes down, there may be some musical chairs necessary to ensure they’re getting their five best offensive linemen on the field.
Still, Feliciano’s roster spot becomes more secure the more the other centers struggle since finding a backup for Brendel is one of the more minor issues the 49ers coaching staff will need to solve by the time the season begins.
