Unsung Heroes: Why Colton McKivitz’s Pursuit of the 10-Year Wall Matters
Let's be completely honest for a second any opportunity I get to write about the big men grinding away in the trenches, I am absolutely going to take it. In a football landscape dominated by viral wide receiver rants, dynamic quarterback metrics, and flashy edge-rush celebrations, the offensive line never gets enough love. They play a grueling, thankless game where a perfect block goes completely unnoticed, but a single missed assignment is broadcast in slow-mo replay to millions.
Video Transcript
Before we get into today's, let's just take a moment to talk about how if I ever get the opportunity to write about the big men up front in the trenches, I'm gonna take it.
In football, everybody always goes viral, the quarterback, the running back, the wide receivers, all the things, but it's never the trenches.
So anytime I can, they always go unnoticed, I will make sure that they get noticed.
That's why we're gonna talk about Colton McKivitz.
A few years ago, if you would have polled and asked the average 49ers fan, almost nobody would have pinned Colton McKivitz as a player destined to permanently etch his name into the franchise history.
Yet as we push into 2026, the veteran right tackle is quietly closing in on one of the organization's immortal honors.
McKivitz's professional trajectory has been anything but linear.
He was selected in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft out of West Virginia, who has then struggled to find his immediate footing.
In August 2021, the front office actually waived him.
He cleared those waivers, swallowed his pride, and signed to the practice squad.
He worked extensively on his frame and upper body hand placement and strength.
And while he executed a crucial legendary spot start for an injured Trent Williams in week 18 of a must-win game over the Los Angeles Rams that season, plenty of eyebrows were still raised across the league when John Lynch handed him the permanent right tackle starting job in 2023.
Going into that campaign, McKivitz had p- had had a grand total of five career starts spread across a variety of backup positions.
But offensive linemen are built on raw repetition, and over the last two seasons, McKivitz has shoring up his baseline pass sets and reduced his surrendered pressures down to elite metrics.
The front office rewarded him with an extremely, lucrative three-year, forty-five million dollar extension that contractually locks him into the bay through the 2028 season.
He said, "I wanna be on that ten-year wall.
I don't wanna leave here.
Obviously, being cut, I got some scars there, but there was a reason why I was drafted here, why I was cut here, and why I still play here.
Now I've had three good seasons of starting, and I'm going into my fourth.
There's a sense of family.
When you have a core group of players who understand a winning culture and understand the standard of what this franchise was built on, it's hard for guys to turn that away.
There's a sole goal in mind in this building, and it starts from the top down."
Considering the 2020 draft class that featured premium capital like Javon Kinlaw and Brandon Aiyuk, alongside late round dep gen Jauan Jennings, Kinlaw has obviously long since departed, Aiyuk is currently, well, you know, in a situation.
And Jennings is officially catching passes for the Minnesota Vikings.
Against all statistical odds, the fifth round tackle who was once cast off to the practice squad is officially the most stable, structurally successful member of that entire draft class.
It's a stunning testament to resilience.
Keep your eyes on number sixty-eight because the big men in the trenches are the ones actually paving the road to the Super Bowls.
