49ers updated roster bubble watch after 2021 OTAs

With OTAs now complete for the 49ers, and no minicamp in sight, Niner Noise scours through the offseason roster to see who’s safe and who’s on the bubble.

The San Francisco 49ers elected to cancel the remaining days of their organized team activities, as well as mandatory minicamp, which was scheduled to start on June 15.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan told the media he was satisfied with the workouts from nearly all 90 players on the offseason roster and therefore didn’t need the extra practice sessions, instead giving the players some added time off in advance of training camp, which will kick off in late July.

But in the wake of two serious injuries to two backups, offensive lineman Justin Skule (ACL) and defensive back Tarvarius Moore (Achilles), it’s hard to think anything else but those two setbacks prompted Shanahan to prematurely end offseason workouts.

Still, there were some notable storylines emanating from the near three weeks of OTAs, and a number of other backend roster transactions shook up what could be the roster bubble.

A number of changes take place from our last bubble watch, but the criteria remain the same:

• Lock — barring an injury or unforeseen move, the player will be there
• Strong bubble — not a lock, but looking pretty good
• Weak bubble — player has an outsider’s chance
• Long shot — in all likelihood, a pre-Week 1 roster cut

Coming through practice reports, salary cap impacts and roster needs, let’s go through each position of the Niners roster to see who’s safe, who’s needing a strong training camp and who’s likely gone in our post-OTA bubble-watch assessment.

Kicking things off with special teams.