49ers roster: 5 players who would be shocking adds in 2021
By Peter Panacy
No. 3: 49ers Linebacker Elijah Sullivan
Undrafted free agents always have a long ways to go to make any team’s 53-man roster in year one, and such should be the case for one of the 49ers’ 2021 UDFAs, Kansas State linebacker Elijah Sullivan.
The Niners added plenty of linebacking depth during the offseason, an effort to support the two starters, Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw. But exactly who winds up surviving post-training camp roster cuts is anyone’s guess. Will it be third-year pro Azeez Al-Shaair retaining his existing role, supported by one of the many other depth candidates for what’s likely to be the fourth and final spot at this position on the regular-season crop?
Read More: Predicting futures for all 49ers’ undrafted rookies in 2021
If so, can someone like Sullivan make it? Or will he be bested by another UDFA linebacker, Justin Hilliard?
Sullivan, whose 6-foot-0 and 215-pound frame doesn’t exactly work in his favor, still plays with plenty of tenacity and isn’t afraid to get down and dirty on special teams duties.
Should that tenacity and feistiness show up during camp and the preseason, it could easily be Sullivan named the No. 4 linebacker on the 53-man roster by the time Week 1 rolls around.