All 49ers

The UDFA who's Most Likely to Make the 49ers 53-Man Roster

Can you guess who it is?

Grant Cohn

Dec 31, 2023; Landover, Maryland, USA; San Francisco 49ers helmet against the Washington Commanders
Dec 31, 2023; Landover, Maryland, USA; San Francisco 49ers helmet against the Washington Commanders / Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

The 49ers are so stacked, any undrafted free agent would have a tough time making their 53-man roster as a rookie. With that being said, which UDFA has the best chance to make the team?

Terrell Owens' son Terique Owens is a 49ers UDFA who will garner lots of attention this offseason, but he's a bit of a project -- he didn't start playing football until his senior year of high school. Plus the 49ers have a logjam at wide receiver after taking two in the past draft. So he probably won't make the team initially.

Cody Schrader has a chance to make the roster considering he led the SEC in rushing last season. Which means he's not a project. Either his skill set will translate to the NFL or it won't. If it translates, he'll perform well in the preseason and the 49ers will have no choice but to give him a roster spot.

But the UDFA who has the best chance to make the team is quarteback Tanner Mordecai, simply because quarterbacks are in such high demand. Mordecai has lots in common with 49ers starting quarterback Brock Purdy, so if Mordecai plays well in the preseason and the 49ers cut him, another team could sign him thinking he's the next Purdy. So the 49ers might want to hold onto him.

And it shouldn't be difficult for Mordecai to earn a spot on the 49ers roster, because he simply has to beat out Brandon Allen, who's more of a coach than a player at this stage of his career.

Let's see if Mordecai can sieze his moment.

Published
Grant Cohn

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.