Photo Credit: 49ers
Mike McGlinchey thinks he’s been “pretty good,” actually.
The third-year right tackle and former ninth-overall pick has been an easy target this season on a 49ers offensive line which was struggled mightily. That line is the worst in the NFL with 30 quarterback hits allowed (2nd is 23), has allowed the 4th-most pressures with 58 and sacks with 18, and is tied for 2nd-worst in pressure percentage at 29.7 percent.
He has had some notable mistakes, especially against the Philadelphia Eagles and, having slimmed down some this offseason—a number he said was roughly five pounds—has not handled power rushers as well as he has in prior season.
On Wednesday, McGlinchey responded to his critics in no uncertain terms. He said criticisms are “always fair,” before explaining why some are not.
“I don’t really appreciate people who are the armchair quarterbacks that take a 30-second clip off of Twitter and think they understand offensive line play,” McGlinchey said. “I don’t like that. But no, I can’t, I can’t give up, whether it’s one or two plays a game in a situation in Philadelphia, when we were in a play-action pass, I went a little too heavy at the guy, Nick still had the ball in his hand and I caused the turnover inside our own 20-yard line. That kind of a thing just can’t happen. And so yeah, that’s a fair assessment.”
If one were to look up one of these clips on Twitter, one might come off less than impressed with McGlinchey’s performance, particularly against the Philadelphia Eagles.
And just before the end of the half pic.twitter.com/ZHpAY0SWTp
— Jake Hutchinson (@hutchdiesel) October 5, 2020
McGlinchey asked his critics to not just isolate those plays, saying, he’s had a “pretty good season.” He took credit for the fact that those egregious errors, like those shown above, are unacceptable.
“In terms of the overall picture, I’d ask those people to watch the entire game because I’m pretty confident that other than the one or two that have happened that have been glaring, I’ve been putting together a pretty good season and I keep continuing to get better each week,” McGlinchey said. “Obviously have to clean up the mistakes that are made. I can’t let those happen my teammates. I can’t be the guy that lets our team down in any situation whether it’s one play, whether it’s 10 plays.”
He characterized the criticism of him as a “lazy narrative” defined by people who are not watching each play.
“I think that each week it’s gotten better and better,” McGlinchey said. “I think that the things that you have been saying have been a little bit over the top. I think nobody’s watching a complete football game and they’re, you know they’re choosing a lazy narrative of one play and they see something on Twitter and they think they have it figured out, but no, I think it’s been a solid, solid year. Obviously have a lot of things continue to improve on, but I’ve been doing that week to week, and just have to clean up.”