5 biggest surprises from 49ers initial 2019 53-man roster

No. 2: Keeping 4 Tight Ends

With so many players fighting for spots at various positions throughout the roster, the battle for a place behind George Kittle somewhat fell by the wayside.

There were some general assumptions, such as Kyle Shanahan keeping three total tight ends on the roster, that rookie Kaden Smith was likely to factor into the equation somehow, and that a key skill would be the ability to allow Shanahan to not telegraph his plays with personnel.

I even gave some thought to what Shanahan’s roster would look like with just two true tight ends, and utilizing rookie receiver Jalen Hurd as a move tight end option.

In the end, John Lynch and Shanahan chose to do none of this, instead choosing to keep four tight ends on the initial 53-man roster: Kittle, Smith, second-year pro Ross Dwelley and veteran Levine Toilolo.

The curiosity here comes not because all of these players haven’t done enough to earn roster spots — although we’ve actually seen rather little of any of these guys, who combined for just eight catches for 104 yards during the preseason — but due to the number of them thatwho survived the cuts.

The upside to this is it allows Shanahan to manipulate his tight end depth based on the week’s opponent and game plan, which is a cool quirk he hasn’t had in his time as the 49ers coach. And in terms of guys with multiple skill sets, he certainly achieved that with this group — a truth which is helped by the fact his starter is actually best at both catching and blocking.

This isn’t necessarily a bad choice for the 49ers, and it could certainly be an interesting one. It just came as a big surprise Lynch and Shanahan ended up going this direction with the roster.