Early 49ers roster-bubble predictions after 2022 NFL Draft

With the 2022 NFL Draft now complete, Niner Noise looks through the 49ers’ presumed offseason roster and sees who’s on the bubble and who’s safe.

Right now, the San Francisco 49ers are poised to have 91 players on their offseason roster.

That’s one more than the allocated amount of allowed players. But with the Niners’ 2022 NFL Draft class yet to sign their rookie contracts, there’s still time for general manager John Lynch to make some final tweaks before the team begins its offseason programs later this month.

For the recap, San Francisco selected a total of nine players via the 2022 draft, including six players between Rounds 4 through 7. Additionally, it agreed to terms with 14 undrafted free agents, some of whom were projected as mid-round picks but managed to slip through the cracks beyond the 49ers’ final “Mr. Irrelevant” selection at No. 262 overall, Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy.

Purdy is an interesting case to be sure, landing squarely on the roster bubble right away amid what could be a position seeing some notable shakeups between now and Week 1.

There are a lot of elements yet to be determined here, but it’s worth taking an early stab at which players are safe bets for the 53-man roster to open the regular season and which ones are on the bubble.

To do this, we’ll look at each player and assign them to one of the four categories:

• Lock: He’ll be there Week 1 (barring injury)
• Strong bubble: Not guaranteed, but looking good
• Weak bubble: A lot will have to go his way
• Long shot: Face it, he’s a camp body

Let’s break this down, position by position, and analyze the Niners’ early roster bubble with the 2022 NFL Draft now complete.