There aren\u2019t many positions open for competition on the San Francisco 49ers as we head into the next phase of the offseason program.<\/p>\n
When Kyle Shanahan was asked whether Dre Greenlaw was locked in as a starter at WILL linebacker, he responded, \u201cYeah, definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s no surprise after the 49ers traded Dee Winters to the Dallas Cowboys. The spots after Fred Warner and Greenlaw are the ones up for grabs. Shanahan said as much when asked where second-year pro Nick Martin stands: \u201cI think we\u2019ve got two guys who established as starters, and I think we\u2019ve got a big-time competition for our three, four, five and six.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, \u201cThere isn\u2019t a leader\u201d at SAM linebacker. That was Luke Gifford\u2019s spot last season. Shanahan said, \u201cGif held that the strongest last year. But it\u2019s open for everyone right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was last year. Gifford made his mark on special teams. When he was on the field, teams went out of their way to target him in the passing game. Despite playing only 51 passing snaps in 2025, Gifford was targeted seven times. He allowed four completions for 77 yards. Gifford turns 31 in August.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a leader,\u201d said Shanahan, doubling down again, adding, \u201cit\u2019s open for everyone.\u201d He also explained why the Niners dealt Winters:<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, we did. And lots of linebackers play also. I mean when it\u2019s base, there\u2019s three out there, so we would\u2019ve loved to keep Dee. We also just looked at our overall roster when you look one to two years out. Also knowing the number of unrestricted free agents we have, the number of guys that we do feel can make this team at linebacker, the thought that we were going to add linebackers in the draft and it\u2019s hard to stockpile players. When you can add a Draft pick and add a younger guy when you might be losing someone the next year and stuff, last thing I wanted to do is trade Dee. We love Dee as a player. We love him as a person. We know how much he\u2019d help us as one of our top three backers, we know how much he\u2019d help us if Dre or Fred got hurt. But then you also look into contracts, how a year out and stuff that is, what you\u2019re doing in the Draft and sometimes you\u2019ve got to make tough decisions like that that can possibly help you in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a business perspective, it makes sense to deal a player with one year remaining on his contract. Winters was excellent playing next to Winters. Unfortunately, there wasn\u2019t enough of that through the two seasons he was on the field.<\/p>\n
One player who will likely make the roster is Tatum Bethune. He\u2019ll continue to man the MIKE position, although Shanahan believes Bethune will need to be prepared to play each position:<\/p>\n
\u201cLinebacker, just like receiver and just like interior linemen, you\u2019ve got to be an option at all three. I mean, you\u2019ve only got so many people up on game day, so you\u2019ve always got to be an option. We do believe MIKE\u2019s Tatum\u2019s strength, that\u2019s what he did in college. That\u2019s where we feel his skillset is at the best. But, we usually have five guys make it, sometimes six. You\u2019re always going to usually keep the best five or the best six, however that pans out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bethune figures to be a special teamer. The same is true for rookie Jaden Dugger. History says the rookie will have a chance to crack the lineup at SAM. That\u2019s what happened with Greenlaw and Azeez Al-Shaair. Shanahan doesn\u2019t believe it\u2019s too much of a stretch that Dugger could win the job:<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s too much. We\u2019ve had rookies come in here and play at linebacker. If you look at Greenlaw and you look at Fred. I\u2019m not trying to compare anyone to those two guys, but it\u2019s always a possibility. I mean, the spot is open. We have two established guys and we can have an on-the-ball linebacker as our third, we can have an off-the-ball linebacker. We\u2019ve got a number of different skill sets in that room this year and I think it\u2019ll be one of the more fun positions to watch how it plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the 49ers are going to zig from what they had at the position last season, an uber-athlete like Dugger would be the way to go. We\u2019ll see how many reps Martin gets on the strong side. If that player shows the ability to rush the passer, as Martin and Dugger did in college, they\u2019ll give themselves the best chance to stay on the field on passing downs.<\/p>\n
Raheem Morris will have the flexibility to maybe take Greenlaw off the field and let the other linebacker stay on the line of scrimmage while Warner mans the middle. There are options, but it depends on how versatile that third linebacker can be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There aren\u2019t many positions open for competition on the San Francisco 49ers as we head into the next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6,1161,252,85370,2630,1137,2624,2623],"class_list":["post-904632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-49ers","tag-49ers","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-49ers-analysis","tag-san-francisco-49ers-depth-chart","tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfrancisco49ers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116659397827310634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}