The San Francisco 49ers have finalized their initial 53-man roster, making a flurry of moves ahead of Tuesday afternoon's deadline.
But let's not pretend all the names you see below will remain, as all 32 teams have until noon Eastern on Wednesday to submit claims for those who were waived. And even some of those released by the Niners on Tuesday could make their way back once more maneuvering is done as the week progresses.
It's not even a "could" situation for one such player, as punter Thomas Morstead was released but will obviously be back once everything else gets sorted out. And he made sure to let everyone know that with a hilarious post on his X account.
R-E-L-A-X
— Thomas Morstead (@thomasmorstead) August 26, 2025
There's plenty to take in here, and while Niners fans undoubtedly won't like everything that went down on Tuesday, most seem to like the idea of keeping rookie offensive linemen Connor Colby and Drew Moss.
But it's impossible not to notice that San Francisco kept 10 offensive linemen to start, which seems a little excessive. But that was the theme in the trenches, as the 49ers also kept 11 defensive linemen. Again, though, changes are coming, so we'll see what those numbers look like come Week 1.
While Niners fans may not be thrilled with everything that's going in with Jauan Jennings' contract dispute, they still have to be happy to see him on the 53-man roster, given the overall state of the wide receiver room. As expected, Brandon Aiyuk will start the year on injured reserve, and while word came down from the league far too late, Demarcus Robinson has indeed received the three-game suspension that the team expected.
Jacob Cowing was one of the five receivers named to the 53-man roster, but he's expected to go on injured reserve, which could be the easy move that gets Morstead back into the mix.
Truth be told, there's a lot of love-and-hate kinds of things here, so let's just go ahead and roll this thing out.
San Francisco 49ers initial 53-man roster
Quarterbacks (2)
- Mac Jones
- Brock Purdy
Running Backs (4)
- Isaac Guerendo
- Jordan James
- Christian McCaffrey
- Brian Robinson Jr.
Fullback (1)
- Kyle Juszczyk
Wide Receivers (5)
- Jacob Cowing
- Jauan Jennings
- Skyy Moore
- Ricky Pearsall
- Jordan Watkins
Tight Ends (3)
- Luke Farrell
- George Kittle
- Jake Tonges
Offensive Linemen (10)
- Ben Bartch
- Jake Brendel
- Spencer Burford
- Connor Colby
- Matt Hennessy
- Colton McKivitz
- Drew Moss
- Austen Pleasants
- Dominick Puni
- Trent Williams
Defensive Linemen (11)
- Evan Anderson
- Robert Beal
- Nick Bosa
- Alfred Collins
- Kalia Davis
- Jordan Elliott
- Yetur Gross-Matos
- Bryce Huff
- Sam Okuayinonu
- Mykel Williams
- CJ West
Linebackers (5)
- Tatum Bethune
- Luke Gifford
- Nick Martin
- Fred Warner
- Dee Winters
Defensive Backs (10)
- Ji'Ayir Brown
- Renardo Green
- Richie Grant
- Deommodore Lenoir
- Chase Lucas
- Siran Neal
- Jason Pinnock
- Marques Sigle
- Upton Stout
- Darrell Luter
Special Teams (2)
- Jake Moody (K)
- Jon Weeks (LS)