How the 49ers' Young Players Benefit From Trent Williams

For the last five years, the San Francisco 49ers have had one of the more older rosters in the NFL.

However, the last two years, especially this offseason, they have had an injection of youth. The 49ers now have a plethora of young players on their roster, so they will have growing pains to deal with and second-year leaps to hope for in 2025.

Coaching will be key to the young players on the 49ers' development, but so are the veterans on the roster. First-round pick Mykel Williams is already receiving tutelage from his defensive end counterpart, Nick Bosa. 

But Williams and the rest of the rookies/young players don’t need to exclusively rely upon veterans at their position. Trent Williams is a veteran whom they can all learn from and receive help from. 

They have already begun receiving help from Williams by just being himself. On Tuesday, head coach Kyle Shanahan expanded upon Williams’ presence, benefiting the young players on the roster. 

“I think it's big.  I think sometimes that stuff can be underrated and also overrated, but everyone knows who Trent is, just the career he's had being one of the best tackles to play the game,” Shanahan said after Day 1 of minicamp. “So when you are a name that people have grown up watching, they want to see how you are in the building.” 

Williams is a pro’s pro. He is one of the best veterans that any young player can model after. It doesn’t matter if their positions are different. Seeing how he prepares, the attention to detail, and all of the nuances that go into him being an elite player should be influential. 

“Trent’s in a different time in his career than everyone else,” Shanahan said. “But I love Trent being around so people can see how much he does care about football, how much he does work at football. You know that by how he plays, but it's cool at his age and where he is at in his career for people to still see what he has to do to get ready.

"He has to do it for himself more than anything, but anytime you have the kind of credibility that someone like Trent has earned, anytime someone gets to watch him do that and watch what he puts into it will always help other people.”

Every young player on the 49ers should be paying close attention to Williams. It should be, at the very least, to draw inspiration and motivation.

Otherwise, they are taking for granted being on the same team with one of the best offensive tackles in NFL history.