The San Francisco 49ers rookies report to training camp on Monday. Last week, we asked which position battle you’re looking forward to watching the most. Your options were left guard, Christian McCaffrey’s backup, safety, the fourth wide receiver, and the linebacker not named Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw.
Our poll results had an obvious winner. Nobody seems to care much about the third linebacker or the fourth wide receiver. Safety was a bit of an afterthought as well.
Jordan James and Kaelon Black will get the bulk of the workload in August. So it’s not a surprise to see them come in second, especially if history has its say with McCaffrey.
But the answer was always left guard. It’s the biggest unknown on the roster. You have a rookie in Carver Willis, a second-year pro who was a seventh-rounder in Connor Colby, a veteran with one year of starting experience in Robert Jones, and an undersized option in Brett Toth.
You can make an argument for each of those four candidates. The ceiling of the offense could be determined by who starts. The same is true for the floor. Whoever starts in September might not be the same player come November, or even December.
All of these reasons are why it’s the most intriguing training camp battle.