The San Francisco 49ers went into draft week with 73 players on their roster. They had ten draft picks, which left room for six UDFA additions barring no releases. They quickly shot well past that number. The 49ers drafted ten players, traded for Kapri Bibbs, are reportedly signing as many as 15 undrafted free agents, and have reportedly signed veteran offensive linemen Brandon Fusco and Tim Barnes. That’s 28 players, which would bring the roster total to 101. So yea, a few cuts are going to happen to get down to the current 90-man limit.
Once all roster moves are official, I was planning on putting together our first bubble watch. It’s way too early to know who will be cut at the end of training camp, but it would be an interesting thought exercise. However, with a large round of cuts, we might as well put together an early bubble watch. It will be interesting to see how off we are.
First off, here are the positions where the 49ers are adding players (*veteran player):
QB: C.J. Beathard, Nick Mullens
RB: Kapri Bibbs*, Joe Williams, Matt Breida
WR: Trent Taylor, Victor Bolden, K.D. Cannon, Kendrick Bourne
TE: George Kittle, Cole Hikutini
OL: Brandon Fusco*, Tim Barnes*, Erik Magnuson, Darrell Williams, JP Flynn, Bret Treadway
DT: D.J. Jones
DE: Solomon Thomas, Pita, Taumoepenu, Noble Nwachukwu
LB: Reuben Foster, Donavin Newsom, Jimmie Gilbert
CB: Ahkello Witherspoon
DB: Adrian Colbert, Jihaad Pretlow
S: Lorenzo Jerome, Malik Golden
Normally we do lock, strong bubble, weak bubble, and longshot. I’m changing it up this time, and going with lock, safe, in danger. The safe category means I’m pretty sure they’re not going anywhere, but there are just enough questions to say, it’s not 100 percent certain. The locks are a mix of some established veterans and all of the team’s more notable free agent signings. Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch both made it clear that players are going to be on the roster until the team finds somebody better.
There more in danger than safe in large part because of the nature of a roster overhaul under new management. Let me know what you think of these groupings.
Lock
QB (2): Brian Hoyer, Matt Barkley
RB (5): Carlos Hyde, Tim Hightower, DuJuan Harris
FB (1): Kyle Juszczyk
WR (11): Pierre Garçon, Marquise Goodwin, Jeremy Kerley, Aldrick Robinson
TE (5): Logan Paulsen
OT (4): Joe Staley, Trenton Brown
OG (3): Joshua Garnett, Garry Gilliam
C (3): Jeremy Zuttah, Daniel Kilgore
DL (10): Arik Armstead, DeForest Buckner, Aaron Lynch, Earl Mitchell
LB (11): Navorro Bowman, Ahmad Brooks, Brock Coyle, Jayson DiManche, Malcolm Smith, Dekoda Watson
CB (7): Rashard Robinson, Keith Reaser, Will Redmond, K’Waun Williams
FS (3): Jimmie Ward, Don Jones
SS (3): Eric Reid, Jaquiski Tartt
K (2): Robbie Gould,
P (2): Bradley Pinion
LS (1): Kyle Nelson
Safe
TE: Vance McDonald, Garrett Celek, Blake Bell, Je’Ron Hamm
OL: John Theus, Zane Beadles
DL: Quinton Dial, Ronald Blair, Tank Carradine,
LB: Ray-Ray Armstrong, Eli Harold,
CB: Dontae Johnson, JaCorey Shepherd
In danger
RB: Mike Davis, Raheem Mostert
WR: Eric Rogers, Rashad Ross, DeAndre Smelter, Bruce Ellington, Aaron Burbridge, DeAndre Carter, Chris Harper
OL: Norman Price, Alex Balducci
DL: Mike Purcell, Zach Moore, Chris Jones
LB: Carl Bradford, Wynton McManis, Shayne Skov
CB: Prince Charles Iworah
S: Marcus Ball, Vinnie Sunseri
K: Nick Rose
P: Brock Miller