49ers Veteran Suddenly Trending Toward Starting Role

Sam Okuayinonu is entering his third year with the San Francisco 49ers, and this could end up being his most important season yet. Okuayinonu will hit free agency this year, and he has the chance to see the most snaps of his career. He could even be a Week 1 starter.

Sam Okuayinonu is trending toward starting for San Francisco 49ers

It is a bit of a process of elimination to get him onto the field, but the team is about three weeks away from the start of the regular season, and the two names most likely to push him are injured.

The plan is for Mykel Williams to start across from Nick Bosa on run downs. However, Williams is on the PUP as he recovers from an ACL injury. The team will likely want to give him a few weeks of practicing and hitting before throwing him on an NFL field, freshly removed from an ACL injury.

So, unless Williams is back immediately, every day seems to speak to how long into the season he will miss. The odds are the 49ers will leave him on the PUP, and he will miss six games. A young player who has potential is going to be eased back, and the timing of the injury makes a return around Week 6 logical.

The other name expected to compete with Okuayinonu is Keion White. White has missed the past couple of weeks with an adductor injury. White is not good enough to come in fresh off of an injury and start over Okuayinonu. The two were likely going to compete or rotate snaps as they had been. White has a few weeks to get healthy, but right now his Week 1 role looks like rotational snaps if he is healthy.

Romello Height will make the team, but the rookie is expected to be a pass rush specialist, and he showed in his NFL debut that there is still work to be done there. He will play rotationally in Week 1.

The rest of the room is filled with players hoping to make the roster due to the lack of depth. The 49ers held Okuayinonu out with the rest of the starters in the preseason opener. He will likely play with the starters in Week 2 of the preseason. Everything shows that the player who had to start 12 games due to injuries last year is on track to start in Week 1 due to injuries this year.

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