49ers roster: 53-man bubble watch with 2022 minicamp in the books
By Peter Panacy
49ers bubble watch: Linebacker
Lock: Azeez Al-Shaair, Oren Burks, Dre Greenlaw, Fred Warner
Strong bubble: Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles
Weak bubble: Jeremiah Gemmel*, Curtis Robinson
Long shot: Marcelino McCrary-Ball*, Segun Olubi*
San Francisco’s starting linebacker trio of Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw and Azeez Al-Shaair is all but set, the only real question here is who of Greenlaw and Al-Shaair subs out in nickel packages.
After that, though, things get a bit more challenging to predict.
The 49ers have liked Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles for his special teams prowess, and that bodes well for him as a No. 4 linebacker. And the amount of guaranteed money given to Oren Burks ($1.365 million), one of the Niners’ offseason free-agent pickups, also bodes well for him carving out a solid role on special teams in addition to being a depth option.
Three undrafted rookies — Jeremiah Gemmel, Marcelino McCrary-Ball and Segun Olubi — are all vying for what’ll likely be a chance at the practice squad, yet Gemmel might be the player worth developing the most.
He has an outsider’s chance of making the 53-man roster right away in 2022, provided he makes a lot of special teams prowess, which is something he didn’t exactly do a lot of at North Carolina.
However, Gemmel’s motor and football IQ might be worth retaining instead of subjecting him to waivers before a practice squad designation.