After six-year wait, 49ers center Jake Brendel finally gets the call to start

San Francisco 49ers center Jake Brendel was certain he would be selected during the final two days of the 2016 NFL draft.

Several teams told his agent, Ryan Downey, they had interest in taking his client in the middle rounds. In fact, the Colts mentioned using a third-round pick on Brendel, who was a four-year starter and three-time co-captain at UCLA.

However, Indianapolis instead used its first-round pick on Alabama center Ryan Kelly. And then six other centers were drafted in the final two days, while Brendel kept waiting for a call that never came.

“Draft weekend,” Brendel said, “was a little bit of a surprise for me.”

It was also a little bit of foreshadowing. Brendel has spent most of the six years since that draft weekend waiting for an opportunity that would not materialize. Until now.

In a career that has included five teams, three starts and 250 offensive snaps, Brendel, who will turn 30 on Saturday, will serve as the 49ers’ starting center when they open the season Sunday in Chicago. The 49ers’ first play will mark Brendel’s seventh offensive snap since Dec. 2, 2018, when he made the last of three fill-in starts with the Dolphins.

Brendel has learned patience, which wasn’t required in college: He owns UCLA’s record with 52 career starts.

“I’ve appreciated every single year in this league as just a steppingstone towards my goal, which is to sign a multi-year contract,” Brendel said. “Going in here as an undrafted guy, you kind of do have to fight for everything you get, which is fine. I’ve been doing it forever. So it’s really, just make the best of the opportunity that you have.”

Brendel’s opportunity finally arrived when Pro Bowl center Alex Mack retired in the offseason and the 49ers ultimately decided the best candidate to replace him was in-house.

Their bet on Brendel isn’t unique. He will likely be flanked by rookie right guard Spencer Burford and left guard Aaron Banks (zero starts). The unproven threesome makes the interior line the 49ers’ biggest question mark, just ahead of Trey Lance, the 22-year-old quarterback they are charged with protecting.

Offensive line coach Chris Foerster expects Brendel to reward the faith placed in him. And that’s not surprising: Foerster has advocated for Brendel since they connected with the Dolphins in 2016, their first of two seasons together.

Foerster was quickly struck by Brendel’s smarts. Brendel had a 4.0 GPA at Plano East (Texas) High School and was an economics major who graduated with a 3.49 GPA at UCLA. And his facility with numbers translated to Xs-and-Os as he easily picked up Miami’s system.

Brendel wasn’t a starting option with the Dolphins, who had Pro Bowl center Mike Pouncey. But Foerster was intrigued by Brendel’s potential. Foerster is the reason the 49ers signed Brendel in 2020, a year in which he opted out due to the pandemic, and why Brendel returned to the team as Mack’s backup last season.

Brendel, 6-foot-4 and 299 pounds, doesn’t overwhelm defensive linemen with size or power, which helps explain his journeyman resume. But his acumen and athleticism are must-have qualities in head coach Kyle Shanahan’s zone-based schemes, which require linemen with strong movement skills.

Foerster noted Brendel’s testing numbers from the 2016 combine are comparable to those of Chiefs center Creed Humphrey, a second-round pick last year who had an impressive rookie season.

“The measurables with Jake aren’t that different,” Foerster said. “… And I’m not putting him in that category today. But I’m just saying that you can see the measurables and say, ‘Wow, this guy has these traits.’”

Added Foerster: “Everything translates to him being able to do it. But you’ve got to do it … The skill set and the person (he is) say this guy should be able to play.”

Brendel is confident he’s ready to play, partly because of the players he learned from throughout his career. Before he spent a season with Mack and two seasons with Pouncey, he began his career in 2016 with the Cowboys, who had Pro Bowl center Travis Frederick.

“So year after year after year after year I’m kind of looking at the difference between the starter that I’m backing up and me,” Brendel aid. “How big of a difference is that?”

The 49ers hope the drop-off from Mack is negligible or nonexistent. That’s a high bar for Brendel, but the 49ers are encouraged after he had a strong training camp. And that came after his 2021 performance in the shadows: Brendel, the scout-team center, battled in practice against players from one of the NFL’s best defensive lines.

In late April, after the final round of the NFL draft, general manager John Lynch offered the first public sign that the undrafted, unproven Brendel was a legitimate starting candidate.

He’s “not a household name,” Lynch said. “But we have a lot of confidence in his ability.”

For his part, Brendel is ready to answer the call, six years after waiting for a call that never came.

“It means a lot for the front office, for coach Shanahan and Foerster to have the confidence in me to give me that shot and not look outside the building for a replacement for Alex,” Brendel said. “It’s a great opportunity to do what I was doing all last season. And now do it Sundays this season.”