San Francisco 49ers: 5 players who’ll struggle in 2020 training camp

Amid a weird offseason, these five 49ers players could have a difficult time getting back and ready for training camp.

The San Francisco 49ers aren’t the only NFL team going through unprecedented times amid one of the oddest offseasons amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

And just like the other 31 squads out there, the Niners will be affected by the lack of true offseason workouts, minicamps, organized team activities and the like. The list of setbacks and adjustments heading towards the 2020 regular season seems almost endless, and it’s anyone’s guess how things will pan out once Week 1 rolls around.

There is a slight guess on a slightly related story. In 2011, the league underwent a brief lockout, and it certainly affected then-first-year 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh’s squad that preseason.

Yet Harbaugh at least had a four-game preseason with which to iron out the kinks, and the Niners would finish 13-3 that year.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan’s squad is coming off a 13-3 season and retained all but three of its starters on offense and defense, so that’s good. And at least there’s currently slated to be two preseason games heading into 2020, too.

Still, that doesn’t automatically translate into players finding immediate success again as soon as they hit the field for training camp later this summer.

A number of reasons could account for this: a new player with a new squad, a rookie, someone coming back from injury, etc. These and any combination thereof could ultimately mean multiple players could wind up looking not so great when official team practices kick off.

Here are five players who could end up struggling when training camp begins later this summer.