Niner Noise
FanSided

San Francisco 49ers: Creating the ideal starting lineup for 2018

By Peter Panacy

SANTA CLARA, CA - SEPTEMBER 16: Jimmy Garoppolo #10 of the San Francisco 49ers congratulates Garrett Celek #88 after Celek caught a touchdown pass against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium on September 16, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
SANTA CLARA, CA - SEPTEMBER 16: Jimmy Garoppolo #10 of the San Francisco 49ers congratulates Garrett Celek #88 after Celek caught a touchdown pass against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium on September 16, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
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SANTA CLARA, CA – OCTOBER 07: Matt Breida #22 of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates after a five-yard touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals during their NFL game at Levi’s Stadium on October 7, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
SANTA CLARA, CA – OCTOBER 07: Matt Breida #22 of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates after a five-yard touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals during their NFL game at Levi’s Stadium on October 7, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /

Niner Noise plays around with some San Francisco 49ers projections in free agency and the NFL Draft to come up with an ideal starting lineup for Week 1 of the 2019 season.

At 1-5 six games into the season, the San Francisco 49ers‘ focus should now shift to getting better in 2019.

This year has revealed an unfortunate truth — the Niners’ rebuild isn’t quite as far along as we were led to believe when the team pulled off five impressive wins to close out 2017. Losing quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to a season-ending ACL injury changed everything. He masked a lot of the issues head coach Kyle Shanahan’s squad had that year.

It doesn’t mean San Francisco’s rebuild is far behind where it should be, though. If anything, it’s right where it should be.

One has to consider the 2017 49ers essentially had an expansion-team roster. They were able to make some notable improvements, including adding Garoppolo, since then. Yet there are still more than a handful of problems that need to be addressed.

Right now, based on the record and their strength of schedule, the Niners are slated to pick No. 1 overall in the 2019 NFL Draft. That could easily change between now and April. But it’s pretty safe to say general manager John Lynch will be armed with another top-five draft pick.

And with a projected $109 million in cap space this offseason (including 2018 rollover), per Over the Cap, Lynch can afford to spend freely in free agency too.

With all this as a backdrop, let’s go ahead and create the ideal starting lineup for San Francisco in 2019, hoping these projected changes help turn the Niners into that playoff contender fans have been eagerly awaiting.