San Francisco 49ers: Young players who prove future is bright

The San Francisco 49ers may have been a major disappointment in 2018, but the future looks bright with these three rising stars on the roster.

Realistically, the 2018 season has been one to forget for the San Francisco 49ers. After coming into the year as potential contenders, they’ve fallen to 4-10 and were among the first clubs to officially have their playoff hopes extinguished.

Despite that, it’s easy to remain optimistic about the future. Jimmy Garoppolo is set to return in 2019. The defense has taken significant strides over the last couple of months, and is extremely young. Although there are some holes on offense, a couple of youthful playmakers seem to suggest good things are to come.

Instead of just making some generalized statement about this team’s long-term potential, though, I wanted to hone in on a few particular players. More specifically, I wanted to highlight three youngsters who figure to play an integral role in whatever success the 49ers enjoy in the coming years.

For simplicity’s sake, I kept my focus on players age 25 or younger. That means no Garoppolo. This is all about bringing attention to the rising stars who don’t always get all of the headlines.

Now that we’ve set the parameters for this discussion, let’s dive in. The following are three young players who I believe are among the keys to the 49ers’ rise to relevance in the not-too-distant future.