49ers roster: 5 players on bubble who need strong training camp

It’s the story of every offseason for every team, but these five 49ers players on the roster bubble will need an impressive training camp to stick around.

Niner Noise has already given you our outlook for who we think is on the fringes of the San Francisco 49ers‘ 53-man roster heading towards the 2021 season.

But this assessment is largely based on what happened during the Niners’ organized team activities — padless practices with no contact, no tackling and nowhere near the intensity of the next phase of San Francisco’s offseason program, training camp.

If anything OTAs help determine what the pecking order might be for first-, second- and third-team units during camp, which will officially kick off for the 49ers in late July.

With 90 players on the offseason roster, and only 53 making the cut, there are going to be plenty of provocative camp battles to watch for those players sitting squarely on the bubble. Not players who are locks, and not players who are long shots.

Instead, here are five players who have a chance to hang around but will need a great performance during training camp to ensure they stay into the regular season.

No. 5: 49ers Quarterback Josh Rosen

Two quarterbacks, Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance, are locked into the Nos. 1 and 2 spots on the team’s roster already, and neither is going anywhere, barring injury.

Yet the No. 3 quarterbacking spot remains wide open and up for grabs, and the current competition comes down to who performs the best out of backups Nate Sudfeld and Josh Rosen.

Rosen, the 2018 first-round NFL Draft choice of the Arizona Cardinals, flamed out there before flaming out with the Miami Dolphins and then winding up on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad where he was plucked away in an emergency by the Niners late in 2020. And while revitalizing his career might be a long shot, an attempt to at least find an immediate home on a 53-man roster should be the former UCLA standout’s immediate goal.

To do this, he’ll have to beat out Sudfeld, an offseason free-agent pickup who previously worked with now-San Francisco quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello with the Philadelphia Eagles and has guaranteed money in his contract.

First-round draft pedigree for Rosen won’t be enough to get the third-string job. No, Rosen will have to shine in camp and showcase the talent that got him drafted that high in the first place if he wants to hang around.