The San Francisco 49ers host visit the San Diego Chargers Thursday evening in their preseason finale. While practice performance is an essential element of the 53-man roster equation, the coaching staff will not completely ignore poor performances during the game. Since we don't get a chance to watch practice every day, we're stuck speculating based on game performances.
The 53-man roster is likely close to finalized, but there are still several position battles and final roster spots to be determined. When I say the 53-man roster is close to finalized, I'd say there are probably four or five spots on the 53-man roster truly up for grabs. You have guys like Dominique Zeigler and Ronald Johnson battling it out. Will Tukuafu and Demarcus Dobbs could fight down to the wire. Phillip Adams seems to be teetering in rehabbing his ankle injury.
However, there is also much to gain and much to lose in terms of regular season playing time. Guys like Adam Snyder and Kendall Hunter and Madieu Williams are all going to make the 49ers roster, but the question is how much time they'll see the field. We'll go into Madieu Williams in more depth on Friday, but for now he's battling for some kind of significant playing time with the regular defense, and not just as a special teams and fifth DB on the field. He appears to be having a strong camp, and a strong performance tomorrow could get him more regular time.
The beat writers are putting together posts on players who need to step up and questions heading into the game so check those out when you get a minute. In the meantime, who are you looking at tomorrow as a player (or players) who needs to put together a strong effort, whether it be for starting time or a roster spot?