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Everyone is doing final 53-man rosters, so I'm throwing my hat into the ring as well. I'm going to make a few surprise choices here, so be prepared to flame me and call me an idiot. I'm hoping for at least 100 comments to that effect.
Some of this will be overreacting to what I saw in preseason, add-in a dash of "stock for the future and save some cap", and voila! My final 53-man roster:
OFFENSE
QB (3): Colin Kaepernick, Colt McCoy, B.J. Daniels
RB (3): Frank Gore, Kendall Hunter, LaMichael James
FB (2): Bruce Miller, Anthony Dixon
WR (6): Anquan Boldin, Kyle Williams, Quinton Patton, Marlon Moore, Lavelle Hawkins, Chuck Jacobs
TE (3): Vernon Davis, Vance McDonald, MarQueis Gray
OT (3): Joe Staley, Anthony Davis, Adam Snyder
OG (3): Mike Iupati, Alex Boone, Joe Looney
C (2): Jonathan Goodwin, Daniel Kilgore
DEFENSE
DE (3): Justin Smith, Ray McDonald, Tony Jerod-Eddie
NT (2): Ian Williams, Glenn Dorsey
OLB (5): Ahmad Brooks, Aldon Smith, Corey Lemonier, Dan Skuta, Cam Johnson
ILB (4): Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman, Michael Wilhoite, Nick Moody
FS (3): Eric Reid, Craig Dahl, Trenton Robinson Michael Thomas
SS (2): Donte Whitner, C.J. Spillman
CB (6): Carlos Rogers, Tarell Brown, Nnamdi Asomugha, Tramaine Brock, Perrish Cox, Marcus Cooper
SPECIAL TEAMS
K (1): Phil Dawson
P (1): Andy Lee
LOS (1): Brian Jennings
NFI: Eric Wright, Cornellius Carradine, Quinton Dial, Marcus Lattimore, Luke Marquardt
PUP: Mario Manningham, Michael Crabtree
Week 1 Suspension: Demarcus Dobbs
Last Five On: MarQueis Gray, Michael Thomas, Lavelle Hawkins, Marcus Cooper, Chuck Jacobs
First Five Off: Garrett Celek, Jewel Hampton, Jon Baldwin, Raymond Ventrone, Austin Collie
Like I said, this is totally a "for the future" roster. I think the 49ers can afford to sacrifice some "could be but hasn't shown anything" type of talent for guys like Hawkins and Jacobs, who HAVE shown something and are young, exciting players. Colin Kaepernick likes guys with that kind of energy, the swag, and he'll have no problem developing chemistry with them.
Between Jacobs, Moore and Hawkins, one of them can be inactive on game days, depending on the opponent as well as who's playing better in the special teams competition, that I would expect to be ongoing.
I didn't keep Ventrone because although he's supposed to be a special teams ace, I haven't seen anything stand out. Meanwhile Michael Thomas can do all of the same things and DID have a good showing vs. the Chargers, and oh by the way, he's a Stanford guy who also plays Nickel CB (and played a lot of CB in general in college).
Jon Baldwin will probably piss a lot of people off, that I left him off here. He's the same investment as AJ Jenkins was and while he had a few catches in week three of the preseason, he had a few drops vs. the Chargers and I just can't have him keeping other guys off the squad who are going out there and balling-out.
So fire away at me!
Footnote: The news about LMJ's sprained MCL just came thru, after I had written this, but I'm not changing my roster until we know the severity of the sprain.
And now we know, as Matt Barrows just reported that James is expected to miss 3-4 weeks with the injury, which is believed to be a Grade 2 (partially torn) sprain of the MCL. For that time frame, I'd think Anthony Dixon can fill in, should his services be needed, but I'd expect Gore and Hunter to carry the load for the most part.