San Francisco 49ers: Four players to watch in preseason opener
San Francisco 49ers football is back!
It’s been a grueling 221 days since we saw the San Francisco 49ers finish the season with a five-game winning streak. The wait is finally over, and the boys will finally step back on the gridiron and take on the Dallas Cowboys.
The good news is – the starters will play. The bad news – they are unlikely to play very much. Kyle Shanahan said in his press conference yesterday that most starters should see one to two series in their exhibition opener.
Yes, that includes Jimmy Garoppolo.
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He emphasized “most” because it’s likely that rookie right tackle Mike McGlinchey should see some reps with the second-team offense to get acclimated to the speed of the NFL.
But the majority of the game will be played by the second and third-stringers on the 49ers depth chart.
The team released its unofficial depth chart on Monday via 49ers.com. Some takeaways from the first unofficial depth chart are, the right guard position, the third-string running back group, and the nickel back depth.
Tonight, fans should expect to see the starters play a series or two as Shanahan said.
The second stringers should play up until halftime, and the third and fourth-stringers should eat up most of the playing time during the second half.
Game one often resembles game four of the preseason, where you can expect to see a lot of playing time for players on the roster bubble.
Here are five players to keep an eye on during the 49ers first preseason game.