The San Francisco 49ers have turned over a sizable chunk of their 2016 roster and also added a plethora of talent via the NFL Draft. After a multitude of transactions, here’s an early look at which 90-man roster players are locks for this season and who is on the bubble.
With the 2017 NFL Draft in the rear-view mirror, the San Francisco 49ers can now shift their focus to developing the players they have on their 90-man roster.
And it’s a roster that underwent even more changes earlier this week.
General manager John Lynch cut 13 players from the roster on Tuesday, signed a number of undrafted free agents and inked veteran offensive linemen Tim Barnes and Brandon Fusco to one-year deals.
After these latest changes, the Niners have now turned over more than half of last year’s roster, as pointed out by Eric Branch of SFGate.com:
#49ers 90-man roster expected to have 49 players who weren't with the team on Feb. 21.
— Eric Branch (@Eric_Branch) May 2, 2017
The 49ers won’t be forced to make the next wave of cuts until Week 3 of the preseason, when the 90-man roster must be trimmed to 75 players. San Francisco’s 53-man roster will be announced when the preseason is finished.
While there are plenty of events to take place between now and final cuts, let’s take a look at players who are locks to make the roster, in pretty good shape, strong- and weak-bubble players.
And let’s break this down position by position, starting things off with special teams.
Note: All roster transactions and signed players as of May 2 and does not included signed undrafted free agents.