Another offensive lineman is joining the mix in Santa Clara.
On Monday, John Lynch talked to reporters at the NFL’s owners meetings. Among other things, the 49ers general manager revealed that the team had signed former Indianapolis Colts and Philadelphia Eagles tackle Matt Pryor.
The 28-year-old TCU product was a former sixth-round pick by the Eagles back in 2018 and spent a couple of years in both Philadelphia and Indianapolis.
He’s mostly been used as a rotational tackle option, but has been fairly healthy over his four-year career, playing in 60 games, starting 24 of them, including nine last season.
While he’s coming off a woeful year — his 44.9 Pro Football Focus grade ranked 198th out of 212 offensive linemen last season — he had a pretty impressive season the year before, when the Colts traded a sixth for Pryor and a seventh-round pick.
He played all 17 games and started 5 of them in 2021. While he only took 431 offensive snaps, his 76.5 PFF grade ranked 40th out of 214 qualified offensive linemen.
Using those grades is imperfect, but it’s one of the only available metrics for offensive line play. His play in 2021 was more concretely supported by the fact that it netted him a one-year, fully guaranteed $5.5 million deal with Indianapolis in 2022.
Given that Colton McKivitz — having signed a two-year extension following Mike McGlinchey’s departure to Denver — is in line to start for the 49ers this season, Pryor is the sort of low-cost upside swing that makes sense in a year San Francisco is going cheap at the right tackle spot.