49ers roster: 4 players with most to lose in preseason vs. Raiders
By Peter Panacy
The 49ers wrap up their 2021 preseason campaign against the Raiders, and these four players have a lot on the line with regards to roster chances.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan faces plenty of difficult decisions over the next few days.
One of the biggest, of course, will be determining whether or not rookie Trey Lance has done enough to take over the starting quarterback job from veteran Jimmy Garoppolo. Shanahan has remained fairly quiet about which decision he’ll make on that front.
But regardless of whatever choice the head coach makes, Lance’s future remains bright. And if Jimmy G winds up being named the starter, Lance hasn’t exactly lost a lot.
The same can’t be said of a number of other players, however.
Shanahan’s tough choices will involve plenty of other Niners on the preseason roster, many of whom will be let go when final roster cuts are engineered the Tuesday after San Francisco faces off against the Las Vegas Raiders for the 2021 preseason finale on Sunday.
Understandably, there’s a lot on the line for these four 49ers players who can’t afford any lackluster or poorish efforts for this final exhibition bout.
No. 4: 49ers Offensive Tackle Shon Coleman
There’s an awfully good chance veteran offensive tackle Shon Coleman’s NFL career is on the line heading into Week 3 of the preseason.
Coleman hasn’t taken a regular-season snap since joining the Niners in 2018, being a weekly inactive that year following his trade from the Cleveland Browns. Then in 2019, Coleman suffered a season-ending ankle injury before opting out of the 2020 campaign because of the pandemic.
Now, in 2021, Coleman appears to be losing the swing-tackle battle to rookie offensive lineman Jaylon Moore, the latter having seen a significant number of snaps over Coleman’s 44 thus far.
At 29 years old and not having played a regular-season game in over three years, it’s unclear what the future might have for the former Auburn lineman. San Francisco appears far more invested in Moore than Coleman at this point, meaning the latter will have to have a “game of games” to keep his fortunes looking upward.