San Francisco 49ers: Ranking the 10 most important players in 2017
By Peter Panacy
The San Francisco 49ers are starting the initial phases of a long-term rebuild, but let’s take a look at the 10 most important players for the Niners this upcoming season.
The San Francisco 49ers’ 2017 offseason has been awfully good so far.
General manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan have gotten off on the right foot, rebuilding a franchise that finished with a 2-14 record a year ago.
While a playoff-caliber roster is still a long ways away, it is still possible to identify both cornerstone pieces and key contributors for this upcoming season.
Some will be holdovers from the previous regime — veterans, and some young players, who will be asked to step up and deliver the kind of impact a rebuilding team needs to continue on its upward path.
Others will be new additions. Perhaps some from the 2017 NFL Draft, free agency and otherwise.
With the 2017 season still more than two months away, Niner Noise breaks down the 10 most important players on San Francisco’s roster this season.
We’ll take a look at why each player is important, the specific aspects making each player noteworthy and why these players’ roles are critical to the development of the team.
Both in short- and long-term goals.
Let’s start things off with a rookie taken in Round 1 of the draft.