49ers depth chart: 5 players who’ll be tough cuts in 2020

The 49ers don’t have a lot of openings on their roster heading into 2020, meaning these five players likely end up being tough cuts for Kyle Shanahan.

In 2017 and 2018, the San Francisco 49ers were merely trying to turn around their rosters following what had been relatively disappointing seasons. If a player was seen as an improvement over someone else, that player likely ended up making the team’s 53-man roster to kick off the regular season.

Coming off Super Bowl LIV and with a stacked roster on both sides of the ball, that’s no longer the case for head coach Kyle Shanahan and his staff entering training camp.

The Niners are retaining all but four of their starters on offense and defense from 2019. And of those offseason departures, essentially two — wide receiver and right guard — are at positions where the starting job is up for grabs. Sure, there are some question marks about the team’s depth, and there’s plenty of room for competition in training camp there, too. Yet San Francisco’s backups and reserves also boast a high number of qualified players who could easily make the regular-season roster.

But some of them won’t, ultimately.

Tough roster cuts are part of the NFL, especially when a team is good and looking to stay that way. Shanahan hasn’t shied away from jettisoning other players, and the offseason already produced two — running back Matt Breida and wide receiver Marquise Goodwin — who contributed nicely but ultimately weren’t going to hang around into 2020. Likewise, both Shanahan and general manager John Lynch have repeatedly stated they’d look to improve the roster at every position however possible.

As such, one should expect more tough cuts once training camp comes to a close and just before the Week 1 roster is announced.

Here are five players who are likely to be among those tough decisions.