San Francisco 49ers: A Way-Too-Early Prediction of the 2017 Starting Lineup

Niner Noise has the long game in mind as we look at a way-too-early prediction of the San Francisco 49ers and what their starting lineup will be to kick off 2017.

OK, so we’re two weeks into the 2016 NFL season, and we have only a small amount of information to summarize everything San Francisco 49ers.

So why on earth would we want to predict what the Niners’ 2017 starting lineup is going to be?

Well, we like predictions. Predictions are fun.

Two weeks’ worth of stats, film and evidence can tell us some about what head coach Chip Kelly’s squad is going to do this season. It’s not likely San Francisco will suddenly feature a standout wide receiver outside of Torrey Smith.

And who knows what the 49ers’ quarterbacking situation will be a year from now. Don’t worry, we’ll predict that too.

Defensively, the Niners have plenty of up-and-coming pieces. Some may be pushing out older, established veterans as we slowly work towards Week 1 of 2017.

We won’t go as far as predicting who San Francisco will target in the draft, nor will we try to guestimate which free agents general manager Trent Baalke — if he’s still with the team — will target with the 49ers’ considerable amount of cap space.

Instead, we’ll mention free agent or rookie, if such an accolade applies to a starter.

Let’s start things off with the most exciting group: special teams.

Next: Special Teams