49ers post-NFL Draft depth chart: Where do Ricky Pearsall and Dominick Puni fit? (2024)

The San Francisco 49ers have filled out their 90-man roster with eight draft picks and a class of undrafted free agents.

What does the depth chart look like in the immediate aftermath of their busy weekend? We took our best, educated guesses at the pecking order at each position. Jockeying will begin next month during OTAs and continue through training camp before the 49ers must cut their roster to 53 players.

Rookie additions are italicized below.

Quarterback

Starter: Brock Purdy

Joshua Dobbs, Brandon Allen, Tanner Mordecai

The 49ers signed Mordecai, who went undrafted after playing at Oklahoma, SMU and Wisconsin. He’s athletic and throws with nice touch. Remember that Purdy began 2022 as the 49ers’ fourth quarterback before he usurped Nate Sudfeld for a spot on the 53-man roster. Mordecai will have a similar opportunity to compete with Brandon Allen, although keep this rule change in mind: A team’s emergency third quarterback will be able to come from the practice squad in 2024. So the 49ers will likely carry only Purdy and Dobbs on the 53-man roster, but they’ll still hold a practice squad audition for that third spot.

Running back/fullback

Starters: Christian McCaffrey, Kyle Juszczyk (FB)

Elijah Mitchell, Jordan Mason,Isaac Guerendo, Cody Schrader

Typically, Kyle Shanahan has carried four running backs and a fullback on the 53-man roster. So, barring injuries, there’ll be an odd man out here but likely a spot available on the practice squad. The team added backs with two distinct types of calling cards. Guerendo, a fourth-round pick, brings spectacular testing metrics. Injuries slowed his production earlier in his college career, but he’s been healthy the past two seasons. Schrader, meanwhile, didn’t test particularly well but he produced 5,456 yards and 62 touchdowns over his college career. The Athletic’s draft analyst Dane Brugler called the UDFA pickup “an attitude runner who sets the tone with his physicality and contact balance.”

Receiver

Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel Sr.

Jauan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall, Jacob Cowing, Chris Conley, Ronnie Bell, Trent Taylor, Danny Gray, Tay Martin, Terique Owens

The plan looks aimed at giving Pearsall runway to gradually work his way into a full-time mix. Shanahan wants his wideouts to know every receiver role and he’s already stated that Pearsall has the skill set to play all of them. But with Aiyuk and Samuel still around, Pearsall can begin to work the inside while expanding his role outward. His slippery play should immediately add another wrinkle to a 49ers offense built to compromise defenses over the intermediate middle of the field. Meanwhile, the 49ers hope that Cowing can give them the explosive threat that hasn’t yet materialized from Gray, whose future with the team appears to be in serious jeopardy.

Tight end

Starter: George Kittle

Eric Saubert, Brayden Willis, Cameron Latu, Mason Pline, Jake Tonges

The hunt to find a complementary receiving threat for Kittle continues. Charlie Woerner, the 49ers’ former second tight end, left for the Atlanta Falcons in free agency. He caught only 11 passes over four seasons. The veteran Saubert may have the inside track now, but the 49ers would prefer if he’s merely a placeholder while at least one of the younger options establishes himself. Maybe that could be Pline, whom the 49ers added after the draft. Pline played only basketball his first three years of college, but he made an impressive transition to football after transferring to Furman. It all depends on how quickly he can develop as a blocker. Latu will have another crack at the job after he missed his rookie with season with a knee injury. But he has a lot to prove after dealing with major drop issues during last season’s training camp.

Offensive tackle

Starters: LT Trent Williams, RT Colton McKivitz

Jaylon Moore, Brandon Parker, Sebastian Gutierrez, Isaac Alarcón

The 49ers didn’t add a pure offensive tackle during this draft. They didn’t pick until No. 31 and all of the tackles who matched their system were off the board by then. If the 49ers continue winning and picking low in the first round, they may have to replace Williams, who’ll turn 36 before next season, through free agency or a trade once he does retire. McKivitz comes at an affordable price, so he remains a stopgap measure on the other side. But there is a chance the tackle position is further fortified by one of the guards on this 49ers roster because they’ve tried to acquire interior linemen with exterior flexibility.

Guard/center

Starters: LG Aaron Banks, C Jake Brendel, RG Jon Feliciano

Dominick Puni, Spencer Burford, Nick Zakelj, Jarrett Kingston, Ben Bartch, Drake Nugent, Corey Luciano, Briason Mays

Puni, the 49ers’ third-round pick, played more tackle than guard in college. He didn’t allow a sack over two years at Kansas. He’ll begin by working at guard, but the 49ers consider him capable of playing all five positions. Another intriguing addition is Nugent, an All-Big Ten center on Michigan’s national championship team. He went undrafted because of his 300-pound size, which is on the small end for the position, but the 49ers are constantly on the lookout for a quality center.

Defensive end

Starters: Nick Bosa, Leonard Floyd

Yetur Gross-Matos, Drake Jackson, Robert Beal Jr., Austin Bryant, Alex Barrett, Raymond Johnson III, Earnest Brown IV,Sam Okuayinonu

Maybe the post-draft headline should have been: Niners don’t draft a single defensive lineman!

For just the second time since Shanahan and Lynch arrived in 2017, the 49ers chose not to bulk up their defensive line in the draft, though they did add a run-stuffing defensive tackle, Evan Anderson, after the draft. They also didn’t look to the defensive line with their eight picks in 2021.

Maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise after the team spent most of the free agency period reshuffling the position. The 49ers likely will have two new starters on the line — Floyd and Maliek Collins — when the new season begins. We have Jackson, the 49ers’ top draft pick in 2022, as the fourth defensive end in the rotation, but he’ll have to hold off Beal this offseason.

Defensive tackle

Starters:Javon Hargrave,Maliek Collins

Jordan Elliott, Kevin Givens, Kalia Davis, T.Y. McGill, Spencer Waege, Evan Anderson

The 49ers like to keep 10 defensive linemen on the 53-man roster and have eight in uniform on game days. Look for Gross-Matos to receive a few snaps per game at defensive tackle in obvious passing situations.

The 49ers brought in Elliott to help with a run defensive that flagged at various times last season. The team would like to see Davis, who had mixed results in 54 defensive snaps last season, take a step forward in his third season with the team. Waege and Anderson have a shot at capturing that fifth and final defensive tackle spot on the active roster.

Linebacker

Starters: Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw, De’Vondre Campbell

Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, Ezekiel Turner, Dee Winters, Jalen Graham, Tatum Bethune, Curtis Robinson

The 49ers added Campbell in free agency figuring that Greenlaw could start the season on physically unable to perform list while he continues to recover from his Super Bowl Achilles tear. If that’s the case, Campbell will serve as a starter at weakside linebacker early in the season and a host of other players will compete for the strongside spot.

That group includes incumbent Flannigan-Fowles, free-agent addition Turner, who’s mostly been a special teams player to this point in his career, 2023 draft picks Winters and Graham, and the 49ers’ final pick last Saturday, Bethune, who appeared in 61 games in college.

It will make for one of the livelier competitions this spring and summer. Flannigan-Fowles has experience, Winters has speed while Graham proved to be a fast learner as a rookie and can play all three linebacker spots.

Cornerback

Starters: Charvarius Ward, Deommodore Lenoir

Isaac Yiadom, Renardo Green, Darrell Luter Jr., Rock Ya-Sin, Chase Lucas, Ambry Thomas, Samuel Womack III, Kemon Hall

It wasn’t a promising offseason for incumbent cornerbacks Thomas and Womack. The 49ers brought in a slew of free agents at the position, then used their second-round pick on Florida State’s Green, who stood out for his feistiness and close coverage (14 pass breakups last season).

Thomas was the team’s No. 3 cornerback for most of last season. But the 49ers lost confidence in him in the playoffs and appear eager to find a replacement. Yiadom, who is coming off the best season of his career, is one of the top contenders. Green is another. Lynch said the 49ers think Green can play either outside or nickel, which is the case for Lenoir and a few other players.

“It’s nice when you have that flexibility because you can kind of toy around,” he said. “That depends on Kyle and (the coaches) — they’ll start them out whatever way they want. But to be able to have that flexibility to do either or and then you just find the best matchups.”

Safety

Starters: Talanoa Hufanga, Ji’Ayir Brown

George Odum, Malik Mustapha, Tayler Hawkins, Erik Harris, Jaylen Mahoney

The 49ers looked at a lot of safeties in the run-up to the draft and ended up taking Mustapha with the first of their three picks in the fourth round. That suggests the 49ers aren’t sure whether Hufanga will be ready for the season after tearing his ACL on Nov. 19, although Lynch recently said the safety has been ahead of expectations in his recovery timeline.

The 49ers also could add another veteran at some point, including last year’s starter Tashaun Gipson Sr. He’ll be 34 when the season begins and probably doesn’t want to go through the rigors of a full offseason. But it’s possible the 49ers sign him — or a similar, multi-year veteran — during training camp, which would allow youngsters like Brown and Mustapha to take a lot of snaps in the spring.

Both are aggressive and smart. Mustapha noted he played a hybrid “Panther” position on third downs at Wake Forest, which called for a variety of assignments depending on the opponent.

“It was either I had to spy the quarterback or sometimes I would be with the defensive front running stunts,” he said. “They always had a key factored on me offensively when identifying me. So there were a lot of spots I was put in. Being at the linebacker depth, and then disguising where I would have to burst to play single-high coverage, and even an extra nickel spot. There were a lot of hats that I wore during that third down package.”

Special teams

K: Jake Moody
P: Mitch Wishnowsky
LS: Taybor Pepper
KR: Samuel, McCaffrey, Guerendo, Cowing
PR: Pearsall, Cowing, Taylor, Bell

A few weeks ago, the 49ers had few options at punt returner after Ray-Ray McCloud departed in free agency. Since then they’ve added sure-handed veteran Taylor and drafted a pair of receivers, Pearsall and Cowing, who handled punts in college. Cowing might be considered a more explosive version of McCloud – his acceleration and top speed are elite.

When it comes to adapting to the new kickoff rules, the 49ers say they will have to experiment in practice. The drastically altered play, however, might require a return man who can read blocks and who has more running back-like skills versus pure speed. That makes Samuel, McCaffrey and Guerendo, who ran his 40 in 4.33 seconds, interesting options at the position.

(Top photo of Ricky Pearsall: Godofredo A. Vásquez / Associated Press)