As if your head wasn’t already spinning from this cursed 49ers preseason, I have some bad news to deliver: things are about to get even crazier.
Every NFL team needs to be down to a 53-man roster by next Tuesday at 1 p.m. And while the 49ers might seem to only have 53 active players on their training camp roster because of injuries, that cut-down deadline is not a welcome sight.
Who is in, who is out? John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan have their work cut out for them, with only three more practices and one more preseason game to help guide their decisions.
Here are the five biggest questions remaining for the Niners heading into the final week of the preseason:
Does this team have any viable backup guards?
Things were tough enough for the Niners when starting left guard Ben Bartch went down with an elbow injury last week, but it provided rookie seventh-round pick Connor Colby with more practice reps and preseason game time.
But now that right guard Dom Puni is injured, with a PCL injury putting his Week 1 status in jeopardy, it seems that the Niners need two viable backup guards to play.
And, well, this team might not have one. It’s enough to make my colleague Cam Inman wonder if the team’s de facto swing tackle, Spencer Burford, should move back to guard.
Not ideal!
Colby has been better than expected, but he’s also, unsurprisingly, not ready to start an NFL game yet. He was supposed to be a project player, and they just started the project. Yet he stands as arguably the most viable option to start at one of two currently open guard spots.
The fact that Colby usurped fourth-year pro Nick Zakelj was a bit surprising. The Fordham Ram was ok at the end of last season, after all. But when you watch Zakelj’s preseason film, you can see why the Niners opted to go younger. It’s a tough watch.
Now with Zakelj in position to play, the question going into these final practices and final preseason game is if anyone else can take his snaps at guard. He hasn’t exactly set a high bar for undrafted rookie free agent Drew Moss or second-year practice-squad center Drake Nugent — so they both have an opportunity.
Against the Raiders on Saturday, both showed enough to entice, but not enough to change the depth chart order. (Nugent is holding up well at guard is a positive surprise, and Moss has put together impressive reps for the coaching staff.)
Add in the struggles of backup center Matt Hennessey, and the Niners are potentially looking down the barrel at a big problem on the interior of the offensive line.
But, to spin it another way, they have four options for two spots at guard. This week will likely determine the winners.
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What do you do out wide?
Sometime in October or November, we might look at the 49ers’ wide receiver room and think “that’s a top-10 unit.”
Right now, as we look forward to Week 1, it’s a bottom-10 operation (and that’s a generous interpretation).
Ricky Pearsall has been money in camp and showed that in Saturday’s preseason game. He’s the Niners’ No. 1 as things currently stand.
But with Brandon Aiyuk out for another few months, DeMarcus Robinson looking down the barrel at a three-game suspension (presumably starting Week 1) and Jauan Jennings nursing a finicky calf injury and a grudge against the 49ers for not extending his contract in the spring, there are tough calls to make at the wide receiver position for the short and long term.
To start: Who is Pearsall’s No. 2 in Seattle? If it’s Jennings, he’s going to need to get back on the field soon.
But it’s more likely to be Russell Gage, who has impressed this August and looks primed to take on the Cris Conley role as the veteran receiver who knows how to run routes, blocks, and can play special teams. Isaiah Hodgins can play that role, too. Do the Niners need two such players? And are you in a good place if you have to start one and keep another?
Is Jacob Cowing, who returned from a hamstring injury last week but didn’t play against the Raiders, part of this team’s offensive plans? He’ll need to show it early and often this week. He was invisible upon his return to practice.
Can rookie Jordan Watkins return from a high ankle sprain in time for the season’s start? Unlikely, but the Niners were using him as an X receiver, a role that would facilitate him seeing early action.
Then there’s the question of Junior Bergen. Drafted in the seventh round to be a kick and punt returner, he is also a wide receiver who has done nothing of note in practice or preseason games from scrimmage.
If the Niners only keep five receivers on the active roster — including, perhaps, injured players they’re projecting to play in Seattle — can San Francisco afford to keep Bergen as one of those five? Or do they have to take a roster spot from somewhere else so Bergen can be the sixth, never-used receiver?
These things usually find a way of working themselves out, but the Niners’ wide receiver room is a mystery now, and because of the potential for the room a few weeks into the season, the solutions will have to come in-house. Who is going to step up and demand a spot on the plane to SeaTac?
Can you sneak ’em through?
The Niners might not have the top-end talent they boasted in recent years — the team gutted its veteran middle class in the offseason — but there is some nice depth (albeit theoretical in many places) on this team thanks to 19 draft picks made in the last two seasons.
And all that young talent on the depth chart, plus the team’s prodigious injury list, leaves San Francisco in the unenviable situation of having to figure out ways to either keep undrafted rookie free agents or get them through waivers and onto a practice squad at cut-down day (Aug. 26).
Two names at the top of the “What do we do with these guys?” list are defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez and defensive back Jakob Robinson.
Neither player has been impressive enough to claim a roster spot to date, but both are knocking at the door, having made the most of their opportunities to this point.
Can you keep playing them in the preseason and then hope no one around the league notices?
At the same time, can you afford to cut another player for the sake of bringing the kid into the fold?
The Niners have roughly a week to figure it out. And as we’ve seen with this team in the past, other teams are keen to pick up what San Francisco tosses out.
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Camp body to key backup?
The 49ers have two defensive ends they can trust going into Week 1: Nick Bosa and Bryce Huff (who looked good against the run against the Raiders).
After that? Chaos.
With all the injuries and question marks at the position, the Niners have been signing a new player seemingly every day just to get through practice.
One of those players is former Seahawk Trevis Gipson. And he might make this 53-man roster.
Gipson has looked good in practice and was outstanding in Saturday’s game against the Raiders. He provides some real juice at a position that desperately needs it right now.
Gipson might find himself out of a job if rookie Mykel Williams, Sam Okuayinonu, and/or Yetur Gross-Matos return to the mix in the coming days. But seeing as no one knows when that will happen (particularly for the latter), Gipson might find himself on the 53-man roster with another impressive week.
Is his time up?
The 49ers should start rookie Marques Sigle at safety in Week 1. He’s been a revelation this camp. (Where was any of this at Kansas State?) The possible pairing with him and second-year safety Malik Mustapha should have Niners fans excited about the future of the back-end. If safeties are, indeed, destiny, San Francisco has bright days ahead.
In the meantime, they have some serious question marks at the position.
San Francisco typically keeps four safeties. I think Jason Pinnock is the other starter in Week 1.
Then what do you do?
Ji’Ayir Brown — who once had such a promising future himself — looks cuttable. He’s a step slow on everything in practice and in preseason games, and he’s not exactly bringing the thump as a tackler.
Then again, Richie Grant, after a strong start to his Niners’ career, has fallen out of favor in recent days as well. Then there’s Siran Neal, who was signed as a special teamer, but who can’t seem to find the field as either a safety or a cornerback, despite ample opportunities with injuries at both positions in recent weeks.
One has to go. Will the Niners have the conviction to cut a 2023 third-round pick? Did Grant’s strong start build up enough cache to make it through cuts? Is Neal simply too expensive ($1.45 million in dead-cap money) to cut in August?
This week will provide the answers.