market are thin<\/a>. Unless the Niners trust a veteran who is either over the hill or coming off an injury, the draft as a sign the team is content with their safety room, or else they would\u2019ve made a move at some point in the draft.<\/p>\nMykel Williams is expected to be ready for training camp after recovering from a torn ACL, according to John Lynch. The former first-rounder couldn\u2019t be walking into a better situation.<\/p>\n
One of the 49ers\u2019 third-round picks in this draft ended up being Osa Odighizuwa, who is a year removed from leading all defensive tackles in pressures. Odighizuwa\u2019s numbers dipped last season, but that was due to the moves Dallas made.<\/p>\n
On obvious passing downs, Mykel gets Romello Height on one side, who was one of the most explosive pass rushers in the draft, especially when you think in terms of short-area quickness. On the other he gets Nick Bosa. And he\u2019ll be playing next to Odighizuwa.<\/p>\n
The 49ers\u2019 draft put Williams in the batter\u2019s box with runners in scoring position and no outs. He\u2019s walking into every hitter\u2019s dream this season.<\/p>\n
The Cardinals signed a running back this offseason. He was under the impression that they\u2019d start. Then Arizona turned around and drafted a running back with the No. 3 overall pick. It\u2019s a tough business.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an extreme example of Robert Jones\u2019 situation, but he was probably thinking he was competing against seventh-rounder Connor Colby and sixth-rounder Nick Zakelj. So when the 49ers didn\u2019t select an offensive lineman until Day 3, Jones became one of the winners on the roster.<\/p>\n
Carver Willis had 18 starts at right tackle and 10 on the left side, but he\u2019s destined to play inside as a pro. Realistically, he\u2019ll knock Colby or Zakelj off the roster and serve as a backup. If he ends up beating out Jones, then that doesn\u2019t sound like the worst problem on the team\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
But Jones was quite good in 2024 under Mike McDaniel. If he can get back to that level, it\u2019s difficult to envision a rookie outplaying him.<\/p>\n
The wide receivers who can\u2019t stay healthy<\/p>\n
Losing Brandon Aiyuk was crippling to the wide receiver room. Aiyuk\u2019s listed at 200 pounds, but he plays much bigger than that. In the year and a half since Aiyuk\u2019s injury, the Niners have relied on smaller receivers whose bodies have not been able to hold up in the NFL. Jacob Cowing\u2019s hamstring injury lingered all season. Jordan Watkins missed his window to get on the field because of an injury. Ricky Pearsall has played 13 games in two seasons.<\/p>\n
The path to De\u2019Zhaun Stribling playing is rather easy. He should slide into Jauan Jennings\u2019 role with the ability to move around the formation. If Mike Evans misses time, Stribling can play X and be the team\u2019s big-bodied isolated receiver. Unlike Demarcus Robinson, teams have to respect Stribling\u2019s ability to run by them.<\/p>\n
But for Cowing, Pearsall, and even Watkins, drafting a wide receiver with the first pick is the 49ers\u2019 way of putting the injured group of receivers on notice. In a perfect world, Cowing, Pearsall, and Stribling make up the wide receiver room for the next few seasons. But the former two will need to prove they can be reliable this year.<\/p>\n
The 2027 free agency class<\/p>\n
Keion White was probably hoping the 49ers would pick literally any other position to begin the third round. That would\u2019ve given him an opportunity to play as a starter, potentially.<\/p>\n
The writing is on the wall for 31-year-old Luke Gifford\u2019s future after the team drafted Jaden Dugger in the fifth round. The same is true for one or both of Darrell Luter Jr. and Siran Neal, with the addition of Ephesians Prysock. Nick Zakelj can\u2019t feel great about his roster spot as it stands, either.<\/p>\n
What do these players have in common? They\u2019re unrestricted free agents in 2027. The 49ers added players in the draft who were athletic<\/a>, but could also fill depth spots at positions they\u2019d need to sign after the season is over.<\/p>\nFor the third season in a row, the 49ers drafted a running back. Unfortunately for him, Guerendo was the first runner to be drafted. He had as many carries last year as Kyle Shanahan and caught as many passes as John Lynch. Guerendo even played himself off kickoff returns.<\/p>\n
Guerendo fits the height-weight-speed profile the 49ers apparently covet, but his style does not match what Shanahan is looking for in a running back. If it did, the team would have found a way to get a speedy player like Guerendo involved in the offense last year.<\/p>\n
Instead, he\u2019s looking up at the depth chart. Christian McCaffrey will be RB1 as long as he can walk. The workload figures to be lighter for McCaffrey in 2026, but that\u2019ll be because of Jordan James and Kaelon Black.<\/p>\n
The football politics are against Guerendo in this battle. He could be on the outside looking in when it comes time for the 49ers to cut down their roster at the end of August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers haven\u2019t exactly developed a pipeline of talent through the draft recently, leaving the foundation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,243816,47545,2746,2745,99],"class_list":["post-612534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco-49ers-draft","tag-san-francisco-49ers-roster","tag-san-francisco-49ers-depth-chart","tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}