San Francisco 49ers: 5 biggest cornerstone players heading into 2018

For the first time since the Jim Harbaugh era, the San Francisco 49ers have some player talent worth building around. Here are the five biggest names heading into the 2018 NFL offseason.

Unlike 2015 and 2016, the 2017 San Francisco 49ers finally identified and developed a number of key players heading into the offseason — the kinds teams want to build around in a rebuilding process.

The previous years following former head coach Jim Harbaugh’s departure didn’t offer much. Maybe a handful of names at most. But not enough to suggest key cornerstones for the franchise.

While the first 10 weeks of 2017 didn’t exactly go so well, the rebuilding 49ers managed to land a number of players, who have turned a lackluster roster into something respectable on Sundays. General manager John Lynch and his scouting department deserve a lot of credit here.

But there’s more work to be done.

As San Francisco heads into another exciting offseason, let’s look back and identify the five biggest cornerstone pieces the team can build around in this upcoming year.

Fortunately, all these players are relatively young. That’s good.

Having each of these guys to build around takes less pressure off finding foundational talent and more on supplementary pieces. Teams want to be in the latter area, of course.

So, with 2017 winding down, let’s take a look at those five key components to the 49ers future.