49ers pre-draft roster: Who are locks?

The 2014 NFL Draft is ten days away, which means the 49ers roster is looking more or less like we can expect it to look on draft day. The team could still make some moves, but I suspect they will be situated with the current 73 players in ten days.

Yesterday, BigMar mentioned the notion that approximately 24 players on the current roster are potentially looking at stiff competition for their roster spots later this summer. Since we've got some time left before the draft, now seemed as good a time as any to go through the roster and consider locks, bubble players and long shots. We'll have plenty more of this heading into training camp, but let's give it a whirl with the 73 players currently on the roster.

Based on the breakdown below, I've got 36 locks, 26 bubble and 11 long shots. I initially was going to go with strong bubble and weak bubble, but there are quite a few guys in the bubble range that are tough to figure out. For example, I think Adam Snyder and Joe Looney are strong bubble options at this point. On the other hand, Jonathan Martin, Luke Marquardt and Carter Bykowski are tough to figure out between strong and weak. Martin's pedigree would seemingly make him a strong bubble candidate, but without a guaranteed contract and the conditional nature of the draft pick traded, maybe not so much. But are Marquardt and Bykowski more or less secure?

I consider a guy like Blaine Gabbert a strong bubble quarterback in large part because of his guaranteed contract. McLeod Bethel-Thompson, on the other hand, has his work cut out for him, particularly if the 49ers add a quarterback in the draft.

The draft will shake this up plenty, and at that point, I'll feel at least a little more comfortable switching to a strong and weak bubble breakdown. For now, here's how I break it down:

Locks

QB: Colin Kaepernick
RB: Frank Gore, Kendall Hunter, Marcus Lattimore
FB: Bruce Miller
WR: Michael Crabtree, Anquan Boldin, Quinton Patton
TE: Vernon Davis, Vance McDonald
OT: Joe Staley, Anthony Davis
OG: Alex Boone, Mike Iupati
C: Daniel Kilgore

DL: Justin Smith, Ray McDonald, Glenn Dorsey, Ian Williams, Tank Carradine
ILB: Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman, Michael Wilhoite, Nick Moody
OLB: Aldon Smith, Ahmad Brooks, Corey Lemonier, Dan Skuta
CB: Tramaine Brock, Chris Culliver
S: Eric Reid, Antoine Bethea, C.J. Spillman

K: Phil Dawson
P: Andy Lee
LS: Kevin McDermott

Bubble

QB: Blaine Gabbert, McLeod Bethel-Thompson
RB: LaMichael James (here strictly because of trade rumors)
FB: Will Tukuafu
WR: Kassim Osgood, Brandon Lloyd, Jon Baldwin, Chuck Jacobs, Devon Wylie
TE: Garrett Celek
OT: Jonathan Martin, Luke Marquardt, Carter Bykowski, Ryan Seymour, Al Netter
OG: Adam Snyder, Joe Looney

DL: Quinton Dial, Demarcus Dobbs, Tony Jerod-Eddie
CB: Perrish Cox, Eric Wright, Darryl Morris, Chris Cook
S: Craig Dahl, Raymond Ventrone

Longshots

RB: Jewel Hampton
WR: David Reed, DeMarco Sampson
TE: Derek Carrier

DL: Larwrence Okoye, Mike Purcell, Christian Tupou
ILB: Darius Fleming
CB: Dax Swanson
S: D.J. Campbell

P: Colton Schmidt

Here's the full 73-man roster: