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The 49ers' Biggest Roster Decision Heading into OTAs

The 49ers will have some intriguing position battles during OTAs and training camp this offseason.
Grant Cohn|
May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, right, confers with defensive coordinator Robert Saleh during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
May 9, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, right, confers with defensive coordinator Robert Saleh during the teamís rookie minicamp. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers will have some intriguing position battles during OTAs and training camp this offseason.

They let go of nine starting players and they don't necessarily have clearcut replacements for any of them. In many cases, rookies will have to beat out veteran backups for starting jobs.

So which roster decision is the biggest one facing the 49ers currently? According to Sports Illustrated, it's figuring out the cornerback situations.

"The Niners lost former All-Pro Charvarius Ward in free agency and didn’t replace him with a proven veteran," writes Sports Illustrated's Matt Verderame. "Instead, they signed Tre Brown away from the Seahawks, along with Siran Neal and Dallis Flowers. San Francisco also drafted Upton Stout in the third round. Who ends up getting starter-level snaps and, depending on the back end of the depth chart, could there be a surprise cut?"

It seems that Robert Saleh's plan for the secondary is to move Deommodore Lenoir outside full-time and pair him with second-year cornerback Renardo Green in the base defense. Green was one of the best rookie cornerbacks in the league last season and could become a quality starter.

In the nickel defense, the 49ers spent a third-round pick on Upton Stout hoping that he would be able to be their nickelback. I'm guessing they'll live with some growing pains from him early in the season so they can accelerate his development. Because Stout won't be the only rookie potentially playing lots of snaps for the 49ers next season. As many as six rookies could start on defense alone.

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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.

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