Welcome back for another round of the bubble watch! The San Francisco 49ers return to training camp in a month and a half, at which point we’ll be focusing on the numerous position battles. Numerous players are on the roster bubble, and potentially helped or hurt their cause during the offseason workout program. Bubble players likely did not lock up or lose roster spots in the workout program, but they did help or hurt their cases heading into training camp.
Over the next two weeks, we’re going to take a look at each position, and what the bubble watch looks like. As we’ve done for many years now, the bubble watch breaks down to lock, strong bubble, weak bubble, and longshot. For some positions, we'll have multiple players listed at strong bubble, even though not all are likely to make the roster. But the idea is that they both stand a good shot, even if it is just one of them. We looked at quarterbacks yesterday. Today we look at running backs.
Lock: Carlos Hyde
Strong bubble: Mike Davis, Shaun Draughn, DuJuan Harris, Kelvin Taylor
Weak bubble: None
Longshot: Fooch’s update: Kendall Gaskins was signed after this was published. Gaskins is a longshot.
I highly doubt the San Francisco 49ers keep all four running backs listed on strong bubble. My guess is they keep Davis, Taylor, and one of Draughn or Harris. I know others disagree with my Davis assessment, but I continue to think he remains on the roster until I see otherwise. In reality though, all four of those backs has a legitimate shot of making the 49ers roster. None is a lock given that they each gave specific questions marks, but they all have a very good shot of ending up on the roster. If Kendall Gaskins was still around, he’d be on the weak bubble or longshot side of things, but for the time being, there’s nobody to drop elsewhere.