49ers training camp: 1 key battle to watch at each position
By Peter Panacy
49ers training camp battle: Backup to linebackers Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw
San Francisco doesn’t have to worry too much about its starting linebacker tandem of Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw.
What 49ers training camp needs to reveal, however, is who’s poised best to assume the No. 3 spot on the linebacking depth chart.
The front-runner right now is third-year pro Azeez Al-Shaair, who showed improvement in 2020 over his unimpressive rookie campaign the season before. Yet Al-Shaair still might not be equipped to handle regular duties, should either Warner or Greenlaw suffer an extensive and elongated injury.
Perhaps that helps explain why the Niners onboarded a slew of new linebackers this offseason — James Burgess Jr., Justin Hilliard and Elijah Sullivan — in addition to fielding another depth option for the competition, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles.
Hilliard and Sullivan were both undrafted free agents with notable injury histories that extended each of their collegiate careers to six years. While Hilliard might be the more promising player, Sullivan’s tenacity and special teams prowess could make him a possible dark-horse addition to the 53-man roster.
A guess might be that Al-Shaair stays in the same role he occupied last season, but he’ll have to beat out quite a number of new faces to retain that job.