49ers pre-training camp 53-man roster prediction: Who survives cuts?

49ers' Linebackers

MLB Fred Warner

SLB De'Vondre Campbell

LB Jalen Graham

LB Dee Winters

LB Tatum Bethune* (added to roster after Greenlaw hits IR)

LB Dre Greenlaw* (IR)

This unit is tricky only because Dre Greenlaw's Achilles injury suffered in the Super Bowl means he won't be ready to start the season, but needs to make the roster to go on the injured reserved list so that he can return later in 2024.

That's a lot of information right off the top, but it informs the reason behind there being six names here, albeit with a caveat.

Fred Warner is a former All-Pro and the best linebacker in the NFL, so no problem there. And as of now, free agent pickup De'Vondre Campbell is going to slide next to Warner in Greenlaw's position, with one of the two second-year players, Jalen Graham or Dee Winters (aka, Warner's favorite player), sliding in as the third starter.

Rookie Tatum Bethune has the makings of a good special teams player, but isn't likely to be a guy who can make an impact on defense just yet, so he's here for now, but there's always a chance a veteran like Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles takes his spot, sending Bethune to the practice squad. This spot gets added after Greenlaw hits the IR, hence the trickiness noted earlier.

The best-case scenario here is that Winters is as good as Warner believes him to be and he cements himself as the long-term answer next to Warner, as Greenlaw is on a long list of pending 2025 free agents for the 49ers.

That also means that when Greenlaw returns later in the year that the 49ers would have three of the better linebackers in the NFL.