While the San Francisco 49ers signed a tall offensive lineman before the NFC Championship Game, he won’t play until next season.
That’s former Dallas Cowboys 6-foot-7, 320-pound offensive lineman Isaac Alarcon, who signed a reserve/future contract with the 49ers on Tuesday. Alarcon spent time on the Cowboys practice squad during the four years since he joined the team in 2020.
Dallas obtained Alarcon, a Mexico native, via the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program in 2020. Alarcon never moved up from the practice squad to the active roster, and he tried a position change to defensive tackle in 2023 before the season.
The Cowboys waived Alarcon during the final roster cuts in August 2023, and he never found his way onto another team’s practice squad. Alarcon previously played college football in Mexico at Monterrey Institute of Technology.
49ers’ Alfredo Gutierrez is ‘Close Friends’ With Isaac Alarcon
Alarcon has one familiar face with 49ers — offensive tackle Alfredo Gutierrez. They played together at ITESM and won a Mexican national title in 2019, and Gutierrez also joined the NFL and the 49ers through the IPPP.
“We are really close friends,” Gutierrez said via The Athletic’s David Lombardi. “We keep in touch a lot.”
The 49ers signed Isaac Alarcón to a reserve/future contract.
Alarcón and current 49er Alfredo Gutierrez were college teammates in Mexico. Alarcón played left tackle; Gutierrez played right tackle.
“We are really close friends,” Gutierrez said. “We keep in touch a lot.”
Gutierrez has seen preseason action, but he has yet to play in a regular season game amid his practice squad designation. The 49ers have had Gutierrez on the practice squad since 2021.
San Francisco has some serious height in Gutierrez, too. He stands at 6-foot-9 and weighs 332 pounds.
Isaac Alarcon ‘Has Tremendous Physical Tools’
While only a few IPP players cracked active rosters in 2023, Alacron offers unique athletic skills that could lead to his turn down the road.
“Isaac has tremendous physical tools and is a quick learner,” pro lineman coach Duke Manyweather said about Alacron via A to Z Sports Dallas in 2021.
Manyweather works with the likes of Philadelphia Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson and Miami Dolphins offensive tackle Terron Armstead, A to Z Sports’ Maurigio Rodriguez wrote. A well-renowned lineman coach, Manweather likes what he sees in Alacron, one of his clients at the time.
“Isaac also possesses some traits and movement skills that are extremely rare for a man his size,” Manyweather told Rodriguez in 2021.
As Rodriguez noted, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott took notice of Alarcon and gave him the nickname “The Great Isaac”. Alarcon said they had several nicknames for each other though they weren’t revealed, according to former DallasCowboys.com reporter Brianna Dix in 2021.
“The NFL is filled with tremendous freaky athletes and ridiculous talent, no matter of his path and origin… Isaac is one of those freaks,” Manyweather said via Rodriguez.
Isaac Alarcon: ‘It’s Definitely More Fun Chasing the Quarterback’
While the 49ers have Alarcon listed as an offensive lineman in the transaction news, he could play defensive lineman after picking it up last year with the Cowboys.
“It’s a more athletic [position],” Alarcon told DallasCowboys.com’s Patrik Walker in June 2023. “Having played offensive lineman the last three seasons, I understand what this looks like [from the other side]. I just have to make the [transition] to making these [new] looks, and to be more athletic — to bend myself more and learn the [new] moves while getting up to the right speed is the challenge.”
“It’s definitely more fun chasing the quarterback,” Alarcon added humorously.
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49ers Sign Former 6-foot-7 Cowboys Blocker