49ers bubble watch: A complete pre-training camp look

Welcome back from the July 4th holiday (or for those that don't celebrate it, welcome back from another weekend). I am wrapping up my July 4th holiday weekend. I flew into Las Vegas last Wednesday, drove up to Nebraska on Thursday, and am back in Las Vegas, leaving Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. Fingers crossed over the next 24 hours!

Over the weekend, I wrapped up a position-by-position look at the San Francisco 49ers bubble watch for each position. I thought today I would put them all together in a single post to make viewing a little easier. You can click the links above for the positional breakdown. I have posted them directly from each

A year ago, I had 36 locks and 21 strong bubbles. For a 53-man roster, that makes for a lot of tough calls. And we saw plenty of them at the end of 2014 training camp. A year later, I have 37 locks and 19 strong bubble options. Tight end, cornerback and safety are three positions where we could find clarity quite easy to bring the 49ers down to 53. Plenty will disagree with some of my locks and strong bubble options.

Locks (37)

QB: Colin Kaepernick, Blaine Gabbert
RB: Carlos Hyde, Reggie Bush, Mike Davis
FB: Bruce Miller
WR: Anquan Boldin, Torrey Smith, Bruce Ellington
TE: Vernon Davis, Vance McDonald, Blake Bell
OT: Joe Staley, 
OG: Alex Boone, Brandon Thomas
C: Marcus Martin, Daniel Kilgore

DT: Glenn Dorsey, Ian Williams, Darnell Dockett, Tank Carradine, Quinton Dial, Arik Armstead
OLB: Aldon Smith, Aaron Lynch, Eli Harold
ILB: NaVorro Bowman, Michael Wilhoite
CB: Tramaine Brock, Dontae Johnson, Jimmie Ward
S: Eric Reid, Antoine Bethea, Jaquiski Tartt

K: Phil Dawson
P: Bradley Pinion
LOS: Kyle Nelson

Strong Bubble (19)

RB: Kendall Hunter
WR: Quinton Patton, Jerome Simpson
TE: Derek Carrier, Garrett Celek
OT: Erik Pears, Trenton Brown
OG: Joe Looney

DT: Tony Jerod-Eddie
OLB: Ahmad Brooks
ILB: Philip Wheeler, Nick Moody, Nick Bellore
CB: Shareece Wright, Kenneth Acker, Chris Cook, Keith Reaser
S: Craig Dahl, L.J. McCray

Weak Bubble (19)

QB: Dylan Thompson
RB: Jarryd Hayne
FB: Trey Millard
WR: DeAndrew White, Dres Anderson, Chuck Jacobs
TE: Busta Anderson, Asante Cleveland
OT: Ian Silberman
OG: Andrew Tiller
C: Dillon Farrell

DT: Mike Purcell, Kaleb Ramsey, Lawrence Okoye
OLB: Corey Lemonier
ILB: Desmond Bishop, Shayne Skov
CB: Marcus Cromartie, Leon McFadden

Longshots (14)

RB: Kendall Gaskins
WR: Issac Blakeney, DiAndre Campbell, Mario Hull
TE: Xavier Grimble
OL: Patrick Miller, Ben Gottschalk, Justin Renfrow, Sean Hooey

DT: Garrison Smith
OLB: Marcus Rush
CB: Mylan Hicks
S: Jermaine Whitehead

K/P: Corey Acosta

Others (1)

WR: DeAndre Smelter (NFI)