49ers roster: 4 players who now find themselves on the bubble
By Peter Panacy
Recent developments from 49ers training camp, along with some transactions, mean these four players are now officially on the bubble.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has never shied away from trying to improve the roster wherever possible.
And while the Niners have long since passed the phase of making splash moves — and there were plenty of them during the offseason — there are going to be the continuous back-end-of-the-roster transactions between now and the regular season.
There are also the cuts needed to get San Francisco’s roster down to 53 players by the time Week 1 rolls around, too.
Players once considered safe for the 53-man roster don’t always stay that way. In the wake of training camp reports and other transactions, a number of players who might have seemed certain to survive roster cuts can inevitably wind up on the roster bubble instead.
Here are four who now find themselves in that not-so-fortunate category.
49ers Bubble-Watch Player No. 4: Quarterback Josh Rosen
Most fans and analysts are focused on the 49ers’ camp battle for the starting quarterback job between Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance. The fight for the No. 3 QB job isn’t overly exciting.
Given the Niners have used three different quarterbacks in two of the last three years, though, determining the best fit between the two candidates, Nate Sudfeld and Josh Rosen, should be modestly important at least.
Rosen, the former first-round NFL Draft pick, might have had a slight edge over Sudfeld early. Particularly after some solid showings in the first week of training camp.
Not so much the second week, though.
“I think he started off real well. I think he’s taken a couple of steps back the last few practices,” Shanahan later told reporters of Rosen ahead of the Niners’ exhibition opener.
Rosen, who has become something of a nomad since joining the league in 2018, could essentially be fighting for his NFL life now and is dangerously close to being out of it altogether, barring a drastic turnaround before the regular season kicks off.