Early 49ers 53-man roster predictions following 2022 NFL Draft

The 49ers’ offseason programs will begin soon, which means it is already time to start figuring out who will make the cut when the roster is trimmed down to 53.

The NFL offseason is a strange time for fans of the San Francisco49ers and the league at large.

To be sure, it’s a 12-month-a-year league for the most part, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t pockets of the calendar that are, shall we say, less than exciting.

This post-draft period before OTAs and minicamps is certainly one of those doldrums of the NFL league year, even though the Niners continue to keep the conversations rolling with wide receivers demanding trades and quarterbacks who can’t be traded.

In spite of all that chatter, there’s still plenty of room for projections as we begin to turn the collective gazes of NFL fans toward the upcoming May 12 schedule release, which means considerations about the 2022 regular season and beyond can truly begin in earnest.

And so, as we’ll do throughout the offseason, that all begins with the first stab at what general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan will do with their roster when it comes time to cut it down to 53 players before the start of the regular season.

By and large, San Francisco’s roster is in good shape with plenty of places pretty well solidified across the board. And while that doesn’t leave a lot of room for the nine players whom the team selected in the 2022 NFL Draft or the 14 undrafted free agents they brought in soon after the draft ended to carve out a roster spot for themselves, it does make for an interesting exercise in terms of the roster’s fringes.

Obviously, once training camp begins, this projection can begin to solidify even more. But given the current state of the roster and the players the 49ers have brought in this offseason, here is the first (of many) attempts to figure out what the Niners’ 53-man roster will look like at the start of the 2022 regular season.

49ers Quarterbacks (2)

QB Trey Lance

QB Nate Sudfeld

All signs appear to point towards the 49ers rolling with second-year quarterback Trey Lance for 2022 and hopefully years to come.

Sure, you can talk all you want about how much Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers sat behind Hall of Famer Brett Favre, or even Jimmy Garoppolo‘s tenure waiting in the wings for Tom Brady with the New England Patriots way back when, but those situations were slightly different.

The trade-up to grab Lance at no.3 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft signaled the former North Dakota State Bison would be the man at the helm sooner rather than later.

And while Garoppolo has yet to be traded and the team’s insistence it can run with him on the roster in 2022, the time has come to cut bait and run with Lance.

Is there a possibility that Garoppolo looks out on the quarterback landscape and decides he’s better off staying in San Francisco, even if that means accepting a more backup-friendly restructuring of his contract?

Absolutely.

But for now, the assumption is the Jimmy G ship will have sailed before final roster cuts, leaving Lance and former practice squad QB Nate Sudfeld to man the position for this upcoming season.

Of course, 2022 Mr. Irrelevant, former Iowa State signal-caller Brock Purdy, could throw a wrench into things by outperforming Sudfeld in training camp. But it’s more likely the team opts not to run with two wildly inexperienced players at the game’s most important position, and Purdy ends up on the 49ers’ practice squad this season.

49ers Running Backs (5)

RB Elijah Mitchell
RB Trey Sermon
RB Jeff Wilson, Jr
RB Tyrion Davis-Price
FB Kyle Juszczyk

There isn’t really much in the way of competition here in the 49ers’ running back room, with the team’s roster currently holding four tailbacks and a pair of fullbacks. And Kyle Shanahan has pretty consistently held onto five total backs, including fullback Kyle Juszczyk, heading into the regular season.

The hope is that this group will provide not only stability but health at a position that lost now-Miami Dolphin Raheem Mostert after two snaps a year ago and saw rookie Elijah Mitchell miss six games due to injury. The team was forced to bring in the likes of Kerryon Johnson and Trenton Cannon to fill roles throughout the year.

That level of attrition, of course, led to wide receiver Deebo Samuel getting moved into his wide-back role, one that may or may not have contributed to his trade demand just weeks ago.

So the unlikely and much-maligned selection of former LSU back Tyrion Davis-Price in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft is likely in an attempt to combat some of those health issues and truly create a four-headed monster at the position.

The issue there, of course, is Shanahan tends to be a “hot hand” guy when it comes to his running backs, so in order to keep his runners fresh, the Niners’ head coach may need to fight against his own tendencies.

JaMycal Hasty is the odd man out here but maybe a player the 49ers can sneak onto the practice squad.

49ers Wide Receivers (5)

WR Deebo Samuel

WR Brandon Aiyuk

WR Jauan Jennings

WR Danny Gray

WR Ray-Ray McLoud

In an ideal world, Kyle Shanahan would actually prefer to keep six players at wide receiver, but to be honest at this point in the process, none of the players outside of this group of five feels like an obvious guy to keep around.

Connor Wedington? Malik Turner? Austin Mack? KeeSean Johnson? Marcus Johnson?

Those are the other wideouts currently on the 49ers’ 90-man roster. And each of them will need training camp to show himself worthy of a roster spot.

The draft yielded just former SMU speedster Danny Gray, who seems pretty well-locked in here. And then there’s the curious case of the undrafted options, a group that has often yielded roster spots for the Niners in recent years.

Notable names from that list are former Pitt Panther Taysir Mack and Oklahoma State Sooner Tay Martin, who could find themselves in the mix with those fringe players for the sixth slot, should Shanahan opt to keep that many receivers in 2022.

Outside of that, the room is pretty easy with Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, and Jauan Jennings sliding into the top three, while newly signed free agent Ray-Ray McLoud will likely mostly serve as a return specialist who sometimes sees the field on offense.

49ers Tight Ends (3)

TE George Kittle

TE Ross Dwelley

TE Charlie Woerner

The 49ers opted not to select a tight end with one of their nine draft picks and only brought in North Carolina product Garrett Walston as a UDFA to contend with the incumbent three from 2021: All-Pro George Kittle, Ross Dwelley, and Charlie Woerner.

Tanner Hudson is also on the current 90-man roster, but his presence feels more like a camp body than anything else. But the intriguing man to watch here is Jordan Matthews, who is back after recently making the switch from wide receiver and could make some noise if the coaching staff sees he can still contribute.

Since Kittle had his breakout season in 2018, 49ers fans have been clamoring for the team to add a second dangerous tight end to pair with the superstar. While Dwelley has been fine, he’s not attracting attention away from Kittle or anyone else on the field, so it appears the wait will continue on this front.

With that said, don’t expect many shakeups at this position in 2022.

49ers Offensive Line (9)

LT Trent Williams

LG Aaron Banks

C Alex Mack

RG Daniel Brunskill

RT Mike McGlinchey

OT Jaylon Moore

OL Spencer Burford

C/G Dohnovan West

OL Nick Zakelj

There is a fair amount of flux happening along the 49ers offensive line heading into the 2022 season.

And it’s got a fair chunk of the fanbase more than a little concerned.

While it took until the fourth round, the team did start to add to its O-line depth with the selection of UTSA lineman Spencer Burford with pick No. 134 overall, followed by adding Fordham tackle Nick Zakelj with selection No. 187 overall in round six.

Add them to last year’s draft picks in the form of Notre Dame guard Aaron Banks and Western Michigan tackle Jaylon Moore, as well as 2020 draftee, West Virginia product Colton McKivitz, it’s hard to accuse the 49ers of not bringing in players to try to fill those holes.

Yet there remains some trepidation, mainly because the question marks around some of these players — namely Banks, who is all be locked in as a starter for 2022 — are abundant. Will Mike McGlinchey still be an effective if flawed player after his injury-plagued 2021 season? Is Alex Mack retiring? What role will Daniel Brunskill play on this team?

One thing is sure, outside of stalwart left tackle Trent Williams and Mack, the youth movement is on for the O-line. Especially in the backup roles.

Part of the reasoning behind that is because the Niners haven’t brought in a veteran option to fill one of the slots as they have through much of Kyle Shanahan’s tenure as head coach.

So it will be up to the kids to step up and be ready to play if called upon.

As starters go, provided Mack is returning, Williams, Banks, Mack, and McGlinchey appear to be in place, with the right guard spot up for grabs. For now, Brunskill seems the most likely, although he like most of the projected depth guys, has versatility at his disposal.

If, for example, Moore becomes a guard and wins the job, Brunskill becomes a valuable and moveable chess piece as needed at every position. The same could be said for Burford, who has played everyone except for center in his career. And the team may view Zakelj as a guard long-term as well.

The interesting name here is the presence of UDFA Dohnovan West out of Arizona State, who also has experience all along the interior line and could be a player the team likes enough to keep as a healthy scratch on game days but who can learn from Mack in 2022.

The 49ers certainly seem to like him, as they snatched him up immediately after they made the final pick of the draft and gave him a $10,000 signing bonus and guaranteed him $100,000 for this season.

That doesn’t guarantee him a roster spot, but it does bode well if he shows out in camp.

One other UDFA name to watch is Mercer guard Jason Poe, a former fullback who can do this at 300-plus pounds.

49ers Defensive Line (11)

EDGE Nick Bosa

EDGE Drake Jackson

DE/DT Arik Armstead

DT Javon Kinlaw

DT Maurice Hurst

EDGE Samson Ebukam

DT Kevin Givens

DE Kerry Hyder, Jr

EDGE Kemoko Turay

EDGE Charles Omenihu

DE Jordan Willis

Ah, the deepest position on the 49ers roster yet again is the defensive line, making it among the hardest to figure out what the Niners brass will do in terms of keeping players.

Chances are, the number will be high, although 11 players might end up being a lot, but they’ll not go lower than nine in the D-line room.

There are plenty of locks, including EDGE Nick Bosa, moveable piece Arik Armstead, defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw, and a second-round draft pick, EDGE Drake Jackson out of the University of Southern California.

Beyond that, while there are quite a few slots to fill, there are also plenty of guys who’ll be fighting for those spots. The 49ers have 14 players on the 90-man roster listed as a defensive lineman, they drafted Jackson, and even brought in Fresno State defensive tackle Kevin Atkins as a UDFA, bringing the total to 16 for no more than the eleven spots here.

For the time being, lets feel pretty good about Maurice Hurst, who didn’t feature much in 2021 due to injury, EDGE Sam Ebukam, who came on late last year, Kevin Givens, who the team may see as a D.J. Jones replacement at nose tackle, and defensive end Kerry Hyder, who returns after a year with the Seattle Seahawks and could prove more versatile than he was during his breakout season in San Francisco in 2020.

Once you get to that number, though, then it gets interesting. I’ve gone with mostly edge rushers, although Jordan Willis is big enough to rush from the inside in a NASCAR package, with both free-agent signing Kemoko Turay and Charles Omenihu showing good skills as depth guys in limited roles in 2021, Turay in Indianapolis with the Colts and Omenihu as a 49er.

But don’t count out Hassan Ridgeway to push Givens and Hurst or Alex Barrett, who has looked solid in limited action in past years, to make some noise in the competition as well.

The good news: This is a good problem to have and hopefully the competition brings out the best in whoever ends up cracking the 53-man roster in September.

49ers Linebackers (4)

MLB Fred Warner

SLB Dre Greenlaw

WLB Azeez Al-Shaair

LB/ST Oren Burks

One place where San Francisco’s roster has often been thin in terms of numbers is at linebacker, where the presence and durability of middle linebacker and defensive captain Fred Warner has made it somewhere they could afford to save a roster spot.

The breakout of not just Dre Greenlaw but also Azeez Al-Shaair, a former UDFA himself, in recent seasons makes that even more the case, although the injury bug has bit both players, especially Greenlaw in 2021, who missed most of that season with a core muscle injury.

This could be a position where the team opts to keep a fifth player and sacrifice a fifth safety or an 11th defensive lineman, with someone like Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles an obvious candidate to fill that fifth slot if they go that direction.

The roster also includes Curtis Robinson, a second-year player out of Stanford, and a trio of UDFA’s from 2022 — Jeremiah Gemmel out of North Carolina, Marcelino McCrary-Ball from Indiana, and Segun Olubi out of San Diego State — all of whom would likely need to excel on special teams to stick around.

Speaking of special teams standouts, the 49ers signed Oren Burks, who has shown flashes at linebacker but has been a stalwart in kick coverage during his time with the Green Bay Packers. While he stands to get most of his playing time on those units, he’s capable, if needed to step in on defense.

49ers Safeties (5)

FS Jimmie Ward

SS Talanoa Hufanga

S George Odum

FS/SS Tarvarius Moore

S Leon O’Neal, Jr

If five safeties feel like a lot to carry, it’s probably because it is.

Most of that is due to the unknown of who will start alongside free safety Jimmie Ward, with Jaquiski Tartt currently still a free agent who doesn’t appear set to return to San Francisco.

Ideally, 2021 fifth-round draft pick Talanoa Hufanga improves upon a solid-but-inconsistent rookie season and snags the job away from the rest of the candidates. But his weakness, downfield coverage, isn’t something you want from an every-down strong safety in the modern NFL.

Tarvarius Moore seemed ready to step into the role prior to last season but he tore his Achilles and spent the entire 2021 campaign on the PUP list, which means his contract essentially got pushed into 2022 even though he was scheduled to be a free agent this offseason.

If Moore can make a full recovery and take the starting role, then he’s the ideal type of guy to have next to the savvy veteran, Ward. Moore has shown great speed and good recovery skills and is very likely the best overall athlete in the group.

Free-agent signing George Odum is another option, and although he has played some in the defensive backfield, he was also a first-team All-Pro player in 2020… as a special teamer. The plan would appear to be that Odum is here primarily to, along with Oren Burks, to improve that unit.

The wild card is yet another UDFA, former Texas A&M standout Leon O’Neal, who already has a chip on his shoulder after having not heard his name called during draft weekend:

https://twitter.com/WakeEmUp9/status/1520788918152704006?cxt=HHwWjMC9zdXd9poqAAAA

He’s more of a downhill thumper than someone like Moore, but there’s little doubt he’ll step in and do what is asked of him. This doesn’t mean O’Neal will be starting by Week 1, but he’ll be a terror on special teams who can learn to be a contributor on defense as time goes by.

49ers Cornerbacks (6)

CB Charvarius Ward

CB Emmanuel Moseley

CB Ambry Thomas

SCB Samuel Womack

CB Deommodore Lenoir

CB Tariq Castro-Fields

If you had cornerback as possibly the second deepest unit on the 49ers heading into the 2022 offseason, then count yourself among the few who probably had it right on that front.

While it took them a while to address the need last year in the draft, they did end up with two solid players in the form of Ambry Thomas out of Michigan and Deommodore Lenoir from Oregon, both of whom were contributors in 2021, albeit at different times during the season.

The Niners did a good job navigating the free agency pool and filled one of their biggest needs by adding one of the better players at his position in Charvarius Ward. The former Kansas City Chief was among the youngest free-agent corners available (he’ll turn 26 years old on May 16) and one who has one of the NFL’s most effective in 2021, according to NextGenStats:

Emmanuel Moseley, yet another hit of an undrafted free agent by this franchise in recent years, continues to improve and stands to be the starter opposite Jimmie Ward, with Thomas possibly being in the mix as either a third outside guy or as someone who can come in on nickel packages while Moseley slides into the slot.

Lenoir started his rookie year well before fading away later in the campaign, but he should be in the mix for a depth guy, as in spite of his stature, he’s shown himself to be a better outside option for the team than in the slot.

Speaking of the slot-corner role left vacated by now-Denver Bronco K’Waun Williams, the 49ers might have directly addressed it with the selection of Toledo’s Samuel Womack, who matches up well in terms of size, speed, and athleticism to Williams.

While Womack may not be rushed into starting right away as a fifth-round draft pick, the role appears to be his for the taking

As for the other 49ers’ draft pick at the position, Tariq Castro-Fields will need to prove his worth on special teams and show enough upside to unseat veterans like Dontae Johnson and Darqueze Dennard as the final guy in the room.

But first the elephant in that particular room: the return of Jason Verrett, who re-signed with the Niners on a one-year deal for the fourth straight season.

Verrett had a special 2020 campaign but tore his ACL in Week 1 of 2021, another in a long line of devastating injuries the former TCU star has sustained during his turbulent NFL career.

There’s no doubt Verrett is capable of being a starter in the NFL when he’s healthy, but the issue is that he very often has not been, having played in just 15 games in three years for San Francisco.

So for now, he’s on the outside looking in, with favor going toward younger and healthier options.

49ers Specialists (3)

K Robbie Gould

P Mitch Wishnowsky

LS Taybor Pepper

It’s always nice to end in a place of least contentiousness. The 49ers’ specialists unit certainly allows for that.

Kicker Robbie Gould is coming off his most accurate season since 2018, and while he did miss four games in 2021, he is heading into the final year of his current contract. He’ll turn 40 years old in December and could be looking at his last season in San Francisco.

Punter Mitch Wishnowsky has been fine but unspectacular as the 49ers’ punter since he was drafted in the fourth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. And that last part has been the issue, as he hasn’t been the field position-changing weapon the Niners might have envisioned when he took him that high.

The Australian out of Utah is also in the last year of his rookie deal, making this a potential make-or-break year for the punter.

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As for long-snapper Taybor Pepper, there’s little reason for the 49ers to move on from him this offseason. Although he, too, is in the final year of his current deal, meaning this could be the last season this trio serves as the kicking battery.

For now, however, all things will remain the same in this particular area of the roster for San Francisco.

The camp battles will begin soon, but the 49ers roster appears to be in excellent shape heading into the summer months. There may not be many holes to fill, but those that do exist will be fun to watch throughout training camp.