With the San Francisco 49ers having No. 2 priority on the NFL waiver wire, that might mean they were plenty busy, right?
Not so much.
Matt Maiocco reported on Sunday that the Arizona Cardinals made five claims while the 49ers left with none. Maiocco does make a good point that the 49ers could have made a claim on the five players the Cardinals went for, but since the Cardinals have priority, the 49ers would not have won those players. That’s if the 49ers were interested.
In any case, it looks like the 53-man roster is pretty much set for Week 1. There will be a transaction or two as the week goes on, but it appears the 49ers didn’t have much interest in the rest of the NFL. It’s a bit concerning the 49ers didn’t look to improve the offensive line from the waiver wire, as they definitely could use some help, but that would involved a brand new face who is unfamiliar with Kyle Shanahan’s playbook and getting them up to speed in a week or two is a tall order when everyone has shifted from installation to gameplanning.
In some ways, this is good. This means the 49ers roster is improving to the point the coaching staff doesn’t see a need to be burning roster spots for players who haven’t had a training camp. When you look at the roster issues of the Cardinals, the fact they made five claims makes sense with the road that roster has in front of it (any 49ers fan should know how long it takes to turnover a roster).
It also might be telling just what that roster is right now. Things could get interesting.