Post NFL Draft Projected 2021 53-Man Roster, plus practice squad, & reserve lists

49ers Projected 53-Man Roster 1.0:

QB(3): 10 Jimmy Garoppolo(2022)/ 5 Trey Lance(2024)/ 7 Nate Sudfeld(2021)
RB(4): 31 Raheem Mostert(2021)/ 30 Jeff Wilson Jr.(2021)/ 28 Trey Sermon(2024)/ 49 Elijah Mitchell(2024)
FB(1): 44 Kyle Juszyzck(2025)
WR(6): 11 Brandon Aiyuk(2023)/ 19 Deebo Samuel(2022)/ 13 Richie James Jr.(2021)/ 81 Trent Sherfield(2021)/ 14 Jalen Hurd(2022)/ 7 Austin Watkins Jr.(2023)
TE(3): 85 George Kittle(2025)/ 82 Ross Dwelley(2021)/ 89 Charlie Woerner(2023)
C(2): 50 Alex Mack(2023)/ 60 Daniel Brunskill(2021)
OG(3): 75 Laken Tomlinson(2021)/ 62 Aaron Banks(2024)/ 68 Colton McKivitz(2023)
OT(4): 71 Trent Williams(2026)/ 69 Mike McGlinchey(2022)/ 67 Justin Skule(2022)/ 76 Jaylon Moore(2024)
DE(5): 97 Nick Bosa(2022)/ 91 Arik Armstead(2024)/ 56 Samson Ebukam(2022)/ 98 Arden Key(2021)/ 78 Jordan Willis(2021)/ 55 Dee Ford(2022)PUP
DT(2): 99 Javon Kinlaw(2023)/ 96 Maurice Hurst Jr.(2021)/ 90 Kevin Givens(2021)SUSPENDED
NT(2): 93 D.J. Jones(2021)/ 92 Zach Kerr(2021)
LB(4): 54 Fred Warner(2021)/ 57 Dre Greenlaw(2022)/ 51 Azeez Al-Shaair(2021)/ 58 Justin Hilliard(2023)
CB(6): 2 Jason Verrett(2021)/ 4 Emmanuel Moseley(2022)/ 24 K’Waun Williams(2021)/ 41 Ambry Thomas(2024)/ 38 Deommodore Lenior(2024)/ 27 Dontae Johnson(2021)
FS(2): 20 Jimmie Ward(2022)/ 33 Tarvarius Moore(2021)
SS(3): 26 Jaquiski Tartt(2021)/ 36 Marcell Harris(2021)/ 29 Talanoa Hufanga(2024)
ST(3): 9 Robbie Gould(2022)/ 6 Mitch Wishnowsky(2022)/ 46 Taybor Pepper(2022)

Practice Squad:

QB 3 Josh Rosen*
RB 22 Wayne Gallman Jr.*
RB 23 JaMycal Hasty
FB 40 Josh Hokit
WR 15 Jauan Jennings
WR 18 Mohamed Sanu Sr.*
TE 83 Josh Pederson
RG 61 Dakoda Shepley
LT 78 Shon Coleman*
DE 94 Alex Barrett
NT 65 Darrion Daniels
SLB 59 Elijah Sullivan
WLB 45 Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles
MLB 47 Nathan Gerry*
FS 7 Jared Mayden
SS 32 Tavon Wilson*

With this roster, the 49ers would have $174,051,142 committed to these 71 players, with $14,527,862 in dead money, so when you combine those two, that’s $188,579,004, while their adjusted cap number for the 49ers is $196,146,022, which would leave the team with $7,442,018 in salary cap room.

I decided to go with just 4 RBs, with Gallman signed to the Practice Squad, I went with the maximum of 6 players with 3+ accrued years, and 10 players with 2 or less accrued years, which is $3.168 million, the maximum allowed for a 16 man practice squad.

With this roster I decided to go with a part what I think the 49ers will do, and what I would do.

I decided to go with two UDFAs that I like a lot, WR Austin Watkins Jr., and SLB Justin Hilliard.

The players on my 53 who have their jobs secured IMO are below.

QB Garopoolo, QB Lance, RB Mostert, RB Wilson, RB Sermon, RB Mitchell, FB Juszcyzk, WR Aiyuk, WR Samuel, WR Hurd, WR Sherfield, WR James, TE Kittle, TE Dwelley, TE Woerner, C Mack, C Brunskill, LG Tomlinson, LG McKivitz, RG Banks, LT Williams, LT Moore, RT McGlinchey, DE Bosa, DE Armstead, DE Ebukam, DE Key, DT Kinlaw, DT Hurst, NT Jones, NT Kerr, MLB Warner, WLB Greenlaw, CB Verrett, CB Moseley, CB Williams, CB Thomas, CB Lenior, FS Ward, FS Moore, SS Tartt, SS Harris, SS Hufanga, PK Gould, P Wishnowsky, & LS Pepper.

Which leaves the following the most vulnerable IMO.

QB Sudfeld, WR Watkins, RT Skule, DE Willis, SLB Al-Shaair, SLB Hilliard, & CB Johnson.

Below is what the 49ers salary cap table would look like with the 71 players signed.

I’ve recently changed my mind on the idea of restructuring some contracts to try and bring in a veteran EDGE & CB, the 2 players I’d consider redoing are Armstead, & Tomlinson, which would save $4.528M from Armstead, & $2.808M from Tomlinson, that’s a total of $7.336M, add that to the $7,442,018 in salary cap room, that would give the team $14,778,018, the 49ers would need to take away $3 million for a Fred Warner extension, leaving $11,778,018 in usable cap room.

Now looking towards 2022, these 2 redoes would add $1.132 million to Armstead’s cap number(2022-2025), and make Tomlinson’s $1,005,530 dead money go up by $2.808M.

With this roster, the 49ers would have 33 players signed, but add in Warner on a manageable $5.5M cap number for 2022, giving them 34 players signed, that would technically put them $13,426,186 over the 2022 $203M projected cap, now it’s obvious that Jimmy won’t be back on his $27M cap number in 2022, not with Trey Lance on a very cheaper rookie contract, and viewed as the future franchise QB.

So by cutting or trading Garoppolo before the 2022 league year begins in March 2020, they’d save $24.895M after factoring in the top 51 rule where someone making $705K replaces him on the top 51, so that would put the 49ers at $11,468,814 under the 2022 salary cap, I should also mention I escalated Deebo Samuel, Dre Greenlaw, & Mitch Wishnowsky’s base salaries for their play time, do to the PPE.

The 49ers would have the following free agents based on my 53 man roster, plus Dee Ford, who I have on PUP, & Kevin Givens who I do have being suspended for the first 4 games.

QB Nate Sudfeld – UFA
RB Raheem Mostert – UFA
RB Jeff Wilson Jr. – UFA
WR Trent Sherfield – UFA
WR Richie James Jr. – UFA
TE Ross Dwelley – UFA
C Daniel Brunskill – RFA
LG Laken Tomlinson – UFA
DE Arden Key – UFA
DE Jordan Willis – UFA
DT Maurice Hurst Jr. – UFA
DT Kevin Givens – ERFA
NT D.J. Jones – UFA
NT Zach Kerr – UFA
SLB Azeez Al-Shaair – RFA
CB Jason Verrett – UFA
CB K’Waun Williams – UFA
CB Dontae Johnson – UFA
FS Tarvarius Moore – UFA
SS Jaquiski Tartt – UFA
SS Marcell Harris – UFA

Now that’s a total of 21 FAs, with 18 UFAs, 2 RFAs, and 1 ERFA.

I imagine the 49ers would re-sign Brunskill & Al-Shaair to cheap 1yr deals worth less than the $2.348M projected tender, as they did with Dwelley & Harris this year.

I also imagine, if all goes well, Givens will be tendered at the 3rd-yr minimum of $895K.

Now for the 18 UFAs, if things go well, the 49ers will likely want to keep most of these guys, let’s look at each of those 18 UFAs below..

QB Nate Sudfeld

If Sudfeld looks good, and does earn the 3rd QB job, they could bring him back, or try to sign a better vet QB to be the #2 QB in 2022.

RB Raheem Mostert
RB Jeff Wilson Jr.

I imagine they’ll want to bring back 1 or both of these 2.

WR Trent Sherfield
WR Richie James Jr.

These two depend on how well they play, both should be relatively cheap to bring back.

TE Ross Dwelley

Dwelley is an underrated #2 TE, I can see the 49ers trying to lock him up to a cheap 3yr deal.

LG Laken Tomlinson

I just don’t see the team bringing back Tomlinson, as they’ll likely have some combination of Banks, McKivitz, and Moore as the teams LG-RG tandem.

DE Arden Key
DE Jordan Willis

Key is the most likely to be brought back, and if by some chance Dee Ford is ready for 2021 or we bring in a vet, then Willis will be the odd man out, I don’t see the team bringing him back unless on veteran minimum deal.

DT Maurice Hurst Jr.

I see the 49ers bringing back Hurst as long as he looks good.

NT D.J. Jones
NT Zach Kerr

I think Jones will be one of the team top priorities to get extended, something in the 3-4 yr deal, this depends on him staying healthy. As for Kerr, I’d love to see him back if he plays well, he’s a guy who can play Big End, 3T, and NT.

CB Jason Verrett
CB K’Waun Williams
CB Dontae Johnson

I think Verrett will be a big priority as long as he plays well and stays healthy, they’ll likely want to get a multi year deal done. Williams could be brought back, but if they like Lenior to take over in year 2, then they may let K’Waun walk, even though I’d love to see him back on a 3yr deal. I just don’t see Johnson back, I don’t know what the 49ers see in him, yes he’s a good backup Slot CB, and Outside CB, but I wouldn’t want him starting, that’s why adding a vet would be great.

FS Tarvarius Moore
SS Jaquiski Tartt
SS Marcell Harris

My ideal Safety duo in 2022 is Moore at FS & 2021 5th-Round pick Talanoa Hufanga at SS, which would mean the team let’s Tartt walk, re-signs Moore, I’ll get into Ward in a moment, and Harris is a 50/50.

So the 49ers would have around $11.468M in cap room, now if they decide not to redo anyone, their cap room would go up to $15.408M, I do believe that would be enough to bring back most of the players the 49ers will want back, so Mostert and/or Wilson, Sherfield, James, Dwelley, Brunskill, Key, Hurst, Givens, Jones, Kerr, Al-Shaair, Verrett, K’Waun, Moore & Harris.

Now the 49ers could create more cap room by releasing Ward, and redoing Armstead & Kittle’s deals.

Cutting Ward would save the team $6.795M, they’d save $8.388M by redoing Kittle, and $10.492M by redoing Armstead.

These would add up to $25.675M to either $11,468,814(if the 49ers redid AA & Tomlinson in 2021) or $15,408,814(If the 49ers don’t redo AA & Tomlinson in 2021), which would give the team between $11,468,814-$37,142,814 if the 49ers do redo AA & Tomlinson, or between $15,408,814-$41,083,814 with AA & Tomlinson not redone in 2021.

About Author

Jason Hurley

Die Hard 49ers fan from New York, been covering the 49ers salary cap since 2005, with several different websites, including NinersNation.com, & the now defunct NinerCapHell, I have a track record of being as accurate as possible, I try to be as thorough as possible, and you can find me on X/Twitter @49erscap, & on Blue Sky App @49erscap.bsky.social.

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