Football Debate Club: Jake Brendel Keeps Outlasting His Critics, and the 49ers Center Has Earned More Respect
· Yahoo Sports
Ask which NFL player deserves more respect and most answers point to a star stuck on a bad team. Jacob Infante went a different direction on the PFN’s Football Debate Club, landing on a player fans tend to notice only when a snap sails high: San Francisco 49ers center Jake Brendel.
Jake Brendel Has Quietly Anchored the 49ers’ Offensive Line
The pitch starts with longevity. Brendel won the starting job in 2022, replacing retired All-Pro Alex Mack, and he has held it through four seasons against a steady drumbeat of fans and analysts calling for an upgrade. He started every game of the 49ers’ run to Super Bowl LVIII, and he has been remarkably available, missing just 2 games across those four years, both last season with a hamstring injury.
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“He’s been their starter at center the last four years,” Infante said. “He’s graded for [PFSN’s] OL Impact score. He’s been a top-10 center in 3 of those 4 seasons. He’s only missed 2 games. He’s only allowed 4 sacks in his last four seasons.”
By PFSN’s interior grading, Brendel ranks among the league’s better centers, and Infante’s broader point lands, too. Even through injuries and shuffling, San Francisco’s line anchored a run-heavy offense that finished in the top 10 in scoring under Kyle Shanahan. Continuity at center, the spot that makes the line’s calls, is part of why.
“He’s not a household name,” Infante said. “He hasn’t been named to a Pro Bowl or an All-Pro, but he’s steadily been a reliable force in that 49ers interior offensive line. I think Brendel is someone in particular who deserves a lot more [respect].”
The Reputation That Hasn’t Caught Up to the 49ers Center
Here’s the part of the respect debate that gets missed. Brendel walked into 2025 buried in the national conversation, ranked as low as 24th among starting centers on one preseason list, with his pass protection drawing years of criticism and 49ers fans tagging him the weakest link on the line. Then he played his way into the top tier, grading among the dozen best centers in the league this past season, as high as eighth by one outside measure. The reputation never moved with the play.
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That’s the disconnect Infante is pointing at. Brendel is a genuinely good run blocker and a clean fit for San Francisco’s outside-zone scheme, and the book on him, that he’s a small, aging center who gets bullied one-on-one, leans on a handful of bad reps against premier nose tackles rather than the body of work. Shanahan has said for years that Brendel protects as well as anyone in the league. This past season’s grades finally backed him up.
What isn’t in dispute is the career. Brendel went undrafted in 2016, bounced through Dallas, Miami, Denver and Baltimore, and spent years as a practice-squad body before becoming a starter at 30. He was a Pro Bowl alternate in 2023 and has never been more than that, despite holding a starting job most people kept trying to give away.
This is the final year of Brendel’s contract, and at 33, he won’t anchor this line forever. The 49ers have younger options like Drake Nugent waiting, and the succession question trails him into every offseason. He has answered it the same way each time, by keeping the job. Respect or not, that streak is the most dependable thing about him.