© Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
So much of what made the 49ers great, and what will keep them competitive for the foreseeable future is depth. There are a few stars on the team, but it’s a roster built upon depth, with athleticism, positional flexibility and intelligence at almost every position. So, in ranking the team’s top 25 players, you’re left with a group defined by quality from bottom to top. That’s also excluding rookies, given that they have yet to see a single NFL snap.
25. Jeff Wilson Jr.
All Jeff Wilson Jr. did was score touchdowns last season. He had four rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown… on six percent of the team’s offensive snaps.
There is always going to be a cap on how many touches a Kyle Shanahan running back can get, but if you were to extrapolate that to even the 24 percent that Matt Breida took, that’s 17 rushing touchdowns and 4 receiving touchdowns. Obviously, that’s not a fair way to anticipate stats. Wilson was largely implemented in red zone situations. An increased workload means a lower percentage of high-percentage scoring chances.
Still, most of the evidence from his albeit limited game film leads me to believe he’s the second-best running back on this roster.
Jerick McKinnon is excluded from that conversation since he hasn’t played in two years. Assuming McKinnon is healthy (an impossible assumption) he would likely be the No. 2 behind Raheem Mostert, and Wilson third, with Tevin Coleman fourth. Coleman does not appear further down this list due to how poor he played down the stretch for most of the season. He was caught off guard by swing passes out of the backfield, struggled to burst through running lanes, and was often hesitant.
Wilson, meanwhile, is extremely efficient in an area of the field where the 49ers had struggled before last season and is ranked above Coleman because he’s a reliable pass-catching back… and because he got his fumbling issues under control after a three-fumble rookie season. Wilson, at age 24, provides a physical, short-yardage back who can make plays as a receiver out of the backfield (he runs a Texas route to perfection, see below, from his game-winner on his only snap against the Cardinals) and is a cheaper version of what Tevin Coleman was supposed to be. But even when Coleman was at his best, it’s hard not to think Wilson could have done the same thing, if not more efficiently. He does what Kyle Shanahan loves, and that’s run through a hole at full speed.
TEXAS ROUTE ALERT!
Cardinals send pressure and Jimmy puts his processing and quick release on display. Jeff Wilson put on them Nick Bosa gloves and it’s a GAME WINNING SCORE pic.twitter.com/q9VsiZuYZH
— Oscar Aparicio (@BetterRivals) November 18, 2019
24. Tarvarius Moore
It’s hard to evaluate Moore because he showed flashes, most of all in dime situations late in the season, that his third-round draft selection was warranted. Even after he was benched for Jimmie Ward by the fourth game of the season, he wasn’t Adrian Colbert-poor, and he was also transitioning back to his natural position after former DBs coach Jeff Hafley (now the head coach at Boston College) wasted the first year of his and D.J. Reed’s development by switching their positions.
Moore is one of the best athletes on the team. He has the build and speed to close down plays on the ground or in the air. It’s his youth, and the poor angles he sometimes took towards the ball in pass situations that has him this far back.
When he’s on the field, especially in run downs and on special teams dynamic. He has a large enough frame with the requisite speed and strength to play as both a quasi-linebacker and straight up safety, making him a perfect jack-of-all-trades backup. His eye positioning needs work, but he showed late in the season both his penchant as a gunner on special teams and improvement in identifying and proactively moving on plays. He’ll be a starting safety again, it’s just a matter of when.
23. Weston Richburg
Richburg’s knee injuries have been persistent and more than a bit concerning. When he was healthy in 2019, which was for most of the season, but not the playoffs, he showed why the 49ers gave him a five-year, $47.5 million deal. And yet, the injuries affirmed why they restructured it. Those injures are also why they’re likely to cut him after this season. Richburg is due $11.41 million in 2021 and $12.21 million in 2022. He’s guaranteed $3.06 million in both, and the 49ers found a capable backup in Ben Garland, and will be right in believing they can draft a rookie to compete with Garland, or another cheap veteran center next season.
When he was healthy, Richburg was a much better pass blocker than Garland, and more agile and forceful in the run game. He committed four penalties last season, which is about average, and looked much improved over the 2018 campaign, which he played, almost entirely, with a torn quad. He’s at least an above average center who leaves you mostly unconcerned when healthy. Shanahan doesn’t have to worry about one of most crucial relationships in football, the battery, between the center and quarterback, when Richburg is in the middle of his offensive line.
22. Emmanuel Moseley
If Moseley repeats anything like the season he had in 2019, he’s going to become a very rich man. Moseley isn’t quite Richard Sherman, but unlike Ahkello Witherspoon, he’s very rarely burned. Moseley mostly held his man to short-yardage plays. When he did get beat, he tended to make the tackle on the spot. That might seem like weak praise for a player who had 12 mostly stellar games, including three playoff games, but those are key requirements of corners in a Robert Saleh defense, even with the shift from Tampa-2 to Cover-3 last year..
Moseley is more athletic than would normally be expected with undrafted rookies. He played elite, tight coverage on a number of talented wide receivers and followed Richard Sherman’s tenet of “keep everything in front of you.”
21. Kendrick Bourne
Bourne is kind of like the wide receiving version of Jeff Wilson Jr, in that he came through in the clutch time and time again, but wasn’t an every-down player. Bourne showed up on just about every third-down situation the 49ers needed him to come through in.
Jimmy Garoppolo led the NFL in converting 50 percent of third downs for first downs last season, which was in large part to Bourne. When the focus was on George Kittle, Emmanuel Sanders and Deebo Samuel, Bourne managed to get open and get the exact yardage needed with surprising consistency.
Bourne ranked 10th in the NFL in percentage of first downs per reception. Twenty-three of his 30 catches went for first downs. Of his six receptions in the playoffs, five were for first downs, and one was a touchdown. He became a reliable slot option for the 49ers, and is the only proven receiving option outside of George Kittle and Deebo Samuel heading into training camp.