{"id":404090,"date":"2026-07-19T03:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404090\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T03:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:24:06","slug":"san-francisco-49ers-waive-4-year-nfl-player-before-season-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404090\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco 49ers Waive 4-Year NFL Player Before Season Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"520\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2253215051.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is not happy about having o open the season in Australia<\/p>\n<p>Training camp is now less than two weeks away, with the<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/san-francisco-49ers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\"> San Francisco 49er<\/a>s set to begin on July 26. Rookies reported on Saturday at the SAP Performance Facility in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n<p>However, before things fully begin, the team made a roster move Saturday afternoon, announcing the news on social media.<\/p>\n<p>49ers Waive Offensive Lineman<\/p>\n<p>San Francisco announced that it waived offensive lineman <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/zach-thomas\/\" title=\"Zachary Thomas\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"345436\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zachary Thomas<\/a>, who the team signed to a Reserve\/Future contract back in January.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas was selected in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Chicago Bears\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/chicago-bears\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"345101\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Bears<\/a> but has struggled to carve out a consistent role in the league.<\/p>\n<p>He spent time with Chicago before having brief stints with the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/los-angeles-rams\/\" title=\"Los Angeles Rams\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"345434\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"New England Patriots\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/new-england-patriots\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"345100\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New England Patriots<\/a>, and Indianapolis Colts. Most recently, he was a member of the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" title=\"Houston Texans\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/houston-texans\/\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"345102\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Texans<\/a>\u2018 practice squad but couldn\u2019t earn a spot on the active roster.<\/p>\n<p>Thomas\u2019 most productive stretch came in 2023 when he appeared on 32 snaps with the Rams before logging 96 snaps, primarily across two games with the Patriots. Since then, he hasn\u2019t recorded another <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nfl\/\" title=\"NFL\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"345437\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL<\/a> snap.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The San Francisco 49ers today announced they have waived OL Zach Thomas.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/49ers\/status\/2078217216026436066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">July 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why Did the 49ers Release Him?<\/p>\n<p>Releasing a player signed during the offseason before training camp begins is certainly notable. However, San Francisco likely viewed Thomas as someone facing an uphill battle to earn a roster spot.<\/p>\n<p>The 49ers still have 13 other offensive linemen on the depth chart, including <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nfl\/player\/trent-williams\/\" title=\"Trent Williams\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"345435\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trent Williams<\/a>, Connor Colby, Jake Brendel, Dominick Puni, Colton McKivitz, Robert Jones, Vederian Lowe, Brett Toth, Carver Willis, Enrique Cruz Jr., Nick Zakelj, Drae Nugent, and Austen Pleasants.<\/p>\n<p>How many offensive linemen Kyle Shanahan and his coaching staff plan to keep remains unknown, but teams typically carry around 8-10 players at the position.<\/p>\n<p>For Thomas, that made earning a roster spot a difficult challenge heading into training camp.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/colesully24\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cole Sullivan<\/a> Cole Sullivan is a sports journalist for Heavy.com covering the NFL, NBA, college football, and college basketball. A member of the United States Basketball Writers Association, he has written for FanSided, Athlon Sports, The Sporting News, and Newsweek. Sullivan earned an Associate degree from Franklin Pierce University and a Bachelor&#8217;s degree from Lynn University, where he studied Communications and Media Studies with a focus on Sports Journalism. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/colesully24\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Cole Sullivan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is not happy about having o open the season in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-404090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}