San Francisco 49ers continue to fortify their offensive line

The San Francisco 49ers have signed offensive lineman Garry Gilliam to an extension. Read more for contract details and analysis!

The San Francisco 49ers continued to fortify their offensive line and add pieces to keep franchise quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo healthy and upright.

The continued to retain their pending free agents, announcing the re-signing of offensive tackle Garry Gilliam to a new deal, keeping him in the red and gold for two more years.

Here is the official announcement from the San Francisco 49ers Twitter:

And here is the announcement from Garry Gilliam himself on Twitter:

The Player

There’s a possibility that you may not know who Gilliam even is due to the fact that he hasn’t been on the roster for long and suffered a season-ending injury in his first start, so let’s talk about him.

Gilliam was born on November 26, 1990 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He played his college ball at Penn State.

The six-foot-five, 300 pound tackle went undrafted, but was claimed by the Seattle Seahawks in 2014.

He stayed with Seattle until the end of the 2016 season. He then joined the San Francisco 49ers in 2017 and was active for eight games. When he got his first start — due to injuries piling up on the offensive line — he too was injured.

The first game he started, he got hurt. It was a season-ending injury, but now that he is back, he has a chance to redeem himself. He will be competing with tackle Trent Brown, who is dealing with injuries of his own, as well.

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Contract Details

According to Ian Rapoport, the deal to bring Gilliam back to San Francisco is worth $8 million dollars, with $4 million being guaranteed money.

It is a pretty big amount of money, given the fact that we haven’t even seen Gilliam play a full game.

However, the confidence GM John Lynch and HC Kyle Shanahan have in Gilliam must be high if they are going to shell out that much money to someone who could end up being a reserve tackle next season.

Fit with the 49ers

Depending how Brown’s injury holds up, Gilliam will be competing with him for the starting spot. If Brown is healthy, he easily gets the role unless Gilliam absolutely proves to be on another level following his own injury.

But if Gilliam isn’t a starter, he could prove to be a reliable backup to protect franchise quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

It is good to see though, that the 49ers aren’t moving on quickly from players they’ve only had for a year. They are building #brickbybrick and they really trust their players.

Next: 49ers Should Sign Andrew Norwell

The 49ers have already secured Garoppolo and Daniel Kilgore, now Gilliam can be added to that list.

It will be interesting to see which player the 49ers choose to re-sign next. Could it be Eric Reid or Carlos Hyde? We’ll find out soon enough.